In a life filled with an endless progression of small pets, the thing I yearned for throughout my life was a dog. When I was a child, we had a little bulldog pug mix named Lola, who attached herself to me in the gardens, and with whom I had tea parties. Then we had a… Read More Never Just a Dog

When we first moved to Barrington, and my daughter Katie was in elementary school, I felt compelled to join the PTO.  I couldn’t just join a committee. No, I had to volunteer the fill the one spot no one seemed to want. The President was moving out of town, and someone needed to step in.… Read More Survivor: Navigating the Shark Infested Waters of the PTO

Some years back, my family van was named the “Squirrel Taxi” by the daughter of a friend.  While it lacked flashing red lights and any sort of medical insignia, she associated it (as did most of my town) with the pickup and transport of orphaned or injured animals. As do many rehabilitators handling mammals, I… Read More Squirrel Taxi

There are many diseases that ravage little wild bodies. Of them all, I think the cruelest ones are those that attack the central nervous system. Raccoons are susceptible to both rabies and distemper, two central nervous system diseases that are virally spread and highly contagious. Rabies is always fatal. Fatal and vicious in the sheer… Read More Gun Shots

The cook, a fierce Vietnamese woman who never went far without her meat cleaver, was a figure of much authority and not insignificant fear in my childhood. It was to her that all the other staff members deferred, and her word was law. My father had determined early on, though he never explicitly stated it,… Read More The Duckling

Despite an execrable meal, I had a delightful time with Ian and Connor at Newport Creamery this evening. So this is how our conversation flowed: Connor noted that that St. Valentine was the patron saint of love, bees, epilepsy and plague (For reals?!) and thus “Valentine’s Day reminds us that we all love each other… Read More Hives and Hawking

I always knew I was adopted. First of all, I look nothing like my parents. Mom’s all blonde and gorgeous and sort of round everywhere. In a nice way, of course. But, I’m dark and kind of sleek. Dad used to tease her that maybe I came from the milkman. God knows, I do love… Read More Cat Thoughts

Yesterday I drove slowly down the Serpentine Road in Warren, and then found a spot to pull my car off the road and walk a bit. I pretended I was back in England. Wind and a light misty rain blew through trees blazing orange and crimson, sending leaves swirling and the strands of my hair… Read More Autumn Walks

Have been wondering for months where my staff scurried off to. It began with having to seat myself in the back of the Daimler one afternoon (with no one to open the door for me, mind you) and realize that the driver simply wasn’t coming,and not only was I going to have to pour my… Read More Adjusting