I’m older than most probably are on here, but not that old. I desperately wanted to get into animal behavioral science for higher education, but the prevailing thoughts at the time were that most animals are devoid of emotions. Negative reactions were chalked up to a pain response, and anything else was deemed anthropomorphism. I really wish I would have pushed anyway, because we have learned and accepted so much since then.

I would have loved to be involved in discoveries like we have read about in the last ten years. Follow your dreams, kids. Things can change faster than you think.

When I worked at an animal shelter in south eastern Wisconsin, we responded to a call where a citizen thought they found a stray puppy. We pulled up to find a coyote pup in their car.

Wildlife is being pressured out of their natural environments into ours. We have to learn to live with them, because they’re not going anywhere. They are important to the environment we share, and we have to learn to coexist with them.