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Pampas cat
I first learned about the Pampas cat when I was a little girl. The Pampas is a vast plain of south-central South America extending for about 1000 miles from the lower Paraná River to south-central Argentina southwest of Buenos Aires. It seemed to me that this cat was the equivalent of North America’s bobcat. The…
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Oncilla baby
The Oncilla, or Leopardus Tigrinus is a small species of wildcat that is considered vulnerable. It lives in dense forested areas, those very same areas that are being clearcut all over the Amazon for slash and burn farming, but they are spread out in a number of countries, including Costa Rica, which treasures them. It…
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Not Nonno – Becoming American
So here’s the question that my cousins and I all fruitlessly discussed: Why did we call our Italian grandmothers “Nonnie” which is very close to “Nonna” or “Nonnina” – the Italian word for grandmother; but none of us called our Italian grandfathers “nonno”? We called them Grandpa and Pop. I had been thinking about this…
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Margarita – the sand cat
I think this is the most amazing name for a little cat. Felis Margarita. Of the many breeds of tiny wild cats, Felis Margarita is one of the very few that appears to be benefiting somewhat from climate change, because as parts of Africa and South East Asia become more desert-like, people move away and…
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Love, love, love
So what did it take? Was there a characteristic of your mate or spouse that just went DING DING DING THIS IS THE ONE? There certainly was for me. On one of my very first dates with my future husband, I noticed how much he loved playing with little children, in fact, he ignored me…