Goodbye: Reflecting on the Death of a Friend
I have been friends with Karin for more than thirty years. She lives in the corner house at the end of my block with a lovely English garden and a…
Unbearable: My Lifelong Experience with Bears
In a way I feel I have grown up with bears. Ever since early childhood, they have been somewhere in my life. The first time I saw a bear was…
My Encounter with a Gray Whale
Not too long ago the local newspaper featured the ongoing saga of a young female Orca stranded in a lagoon on the west coast of Canada. The two year old…
Patrick and the Whale: A PBS Nature Documentary
The other evening my favourite television channel PBS broadcast a documentary called Patrick and the Whale. The documentary follows marine videographer Patrick Dykstra as he searches for a particular whale…
A Sad Note: A Letter to My Friends
I am writing to tell you that we had to say goodbye to our beloved dog Luca yesterday. It happened so suddenly that we are in shock. He was his…
A Whale of Emotion
I listened to an interview the other day about animals and emotions. The scientist stated that for decades researchers had been discouraged and sometimes ridiculed if there was any mention…
Not the Last Word
There are times in one’s life when things seem to happen all at once and you wonder what’s going on. The events of the past few weeks have left me…
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
As I write this my dog Luca is stretched out on his blanket in the hallway near the stairs, seemingly fast asleep. He lies there so he can keep track…
More Dog Stories
In my last blog I wrote about the death of a pet and the emptiness it can leave in one’s life. Within a few days of writing that piece, my…
A Dog-Gone Story
A friend dropped by a short while ago to bring me a bag of dog food and some dog treats. As soon as I saw the bag I knew the…