“Why would anyone keep a tiny tiger in the house?” I asked my immediate circle approximately 1,000 times over the course of the last 20 years. Never mind that I’d made it a lifelong habit of always having at least one tiny wolf by my side. To me, housecats were miscreants who spent their days … Continue reading I Brought a Tiny Tiger into My Home—and Did Not Get Eaten
For a wild octopus yearning to stretch her arms beyond impassable blades of Astroturf and glide off into the depths of the Pacific, any farm is a factory farm. And by positing itself as an octo-friend, a champion of the seas, an environmental savior, Hawaii's octopus farm obscures its role in building this new industrial machine and setting us on an uncharted course we can’t ever come back from.
If you got a COVID vaccine, or any vaccine—or really any medical intervention over the past several decades—you can be sure that the blue blood of 450-million-year-old prehistoric arthropods known as horseshoe crabs was used to keep you safe. But in the U.S., lurking behind this magic potion is a fragile industry stubbornly dependent upon the traumatic bloodletting of a vulnerable species, compounded by a sea of red tape thwarting the widespread adoption of a viable alternative.
It’s a sizzling afternoon in the summer of 2013 in the suburbs of Virginia, and the air is filled with shrieks. An insect flutters to the ground, nearly colliding with my head. As she perches on a nearby tree stump, I capture her silhouette on camera, the intersecting orange lines of her wings against her jet-black body. To the screaming children at the park playground, she’s a menace. To me, it’s like the earth has opened up to deliver a marvel that has been hidden right under our feet for the last 17 years: the cicadas of Brood II.
Lip Gloss' grin made me smile again. And now we're healing from our pain together.
I love spring, the season of rebirth. Every day the leaves grow bigger, new flowers burst into bloom, and the yellow buzzing cotton balls known as carpenter bees dive-bomb me nonstop on my back deck. One might presume this would be quite the annoyance, and in the past, I'd have heartily agreed. Until the day … Continue reading These Dive-Bombing, Deck-Destroying Bees Can Outsmart Us All
She believed that even the smallest among us deserve compassion. And that's how June Bug came into her life one summer.
Today's story is a little different. Today I invite you to become a little part of the story of a serene place called Ranger's Refuge--a slice of paradise where hundreds of unwanted and discarded farmed animals have found a new lease on life. Tucked away in rural Virginia, Ranger's Refuge has been special to me, … Continue reading Cover Your Snout and Save a (Pig) Snout!
It's been a rough week--well, year. After days on end of activism in response to brutal headlines, sometimes you need a breather. These sea puppies are the answer.
The world as we know it is crumbling to our feet. We're locked in our homes, we've lost employment, and loved ones are dying. We long for someone to wake us up and tell us that it's all been a cruel joke. While I can't make that happen, I can introduce you to someone who … Continue reading You Need a Smile. This 3-Legged Goat’s Got You.
