Summary
As a naturalist who has lived in south Australia and the deserts of the American Southwest, Kate Breakey knows it is a futile gesture to pick up a lost quail fledgling and drive 20 miles to bring it to an animal rescuer. The chance of saving such a fragile creature is small, and in the wild, most fledglings die. But feeling compassion is part of being human, Breakey said during a phone interview from her studio outside Tucson, Ariz., so she has made the long drive to the animal rescuer many times.
Breakey grew up in a family where extending the warmth of home to injured wild creatures was natural. Her father hand-fed baby ring- tailed possums whose mothers had been killed on the roads near his rural Australian home. He set them free when they were old enough to survive. Her aunt and uncle lived with a rescued and flightless magpie named Maggie, who would become ecstatic while listening to Joan Sutherland records.See the full content of this document
Extract
As Natural As Death
Many of the creatures Breakey and her family tried to save lived for only a short time, and that experience taught her that even though most people don't notice, deaths occur all around us. "A long...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
