Once There Was A Street Dog That Followed Me Home: The Beginning

Upon moving to the Colorado Desert (don't ask me why; odd things happen in my life), my sole companion, an elderly street dog I had found 14 years before, suddenly died. Beau's death set off a chain of circumstances that resulted in my adopting abandoned and discarded animals, birds and even rodents in my life to come.

This is a story of the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the disappointments and the joys of loving natural life and caring for it beyond what the rationalists call "the safe middle road," easily travelled, but to me an empty shell.

One day while hiking alone in the desert, I spied a lone dog hobbling badly through the sand and covered with blood. I knew at once that he had been attacked by a coyote. A German Shepherd mix, he was no match for the savvy wild one.

The ball having started to roll, I continued to come across, and invite into my life, a congregation of the liveliest, sweetest and saddest homeless furry friends (and some not so furry) one would ever hope to meet. Some couldn't see. Some didn't hear. Some didn't have all their limbs. But we got along as best we could. While many are with me still, many have passed on. Noel the rat, Tommy J the guinea pig, the dogs, the cats, the birds that enriched my life beyond imagination.

This is our story.