Herding Bronze Cats

Samson's memorial in Estes Park stands as a reminder of the massive elk and as a warning to poachers. Author's Collection My most recent outing brought me to Estes Park, Colorado (I’ll be running out of memorials in my home state soon though).  Estes is a small mountain community on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. The community may be most famous as the home of the Stanley Hotel (from the movie version of Stephen King's The  Shining ). Because of its proximity to the National Park it’s pretty common to see deer and their larger cousins, elk wandering through town.  The best known of these elk was Samson. He attained celebrity status thanks to his size and demeanor. The 1000+ lb. gentle giant roamed the streets and wild areas of town amusing visitors and locals alike. His antlers sported seven points on one side and nine on the other, making him easily recognizable And because he lived on a campground property he met a lot of visitors. Samson is so

The Search and Rescue Dog Memorial in West Orange New Jersey pays tribute to the dogs who found survivors after the attack on the World Trade Center. Photo Credit: NJ.com Bretagne and handler Denise Corlis. Photo Credit BARk On this September 11th I wanted to briefly post about one of the memorials dedicated to the rescuers who risked their lives to save the survivors of that horrible event. I’m not going to rehash the events of the terrorist attack on New York and Washington DC that occurred 17 years ago. However, anyone who watched the response live or has spent any time watching documentaries and other video of it knows that an indispensable part of the search and rescue (SAR) response was dogs. About 350 SAR dogs from New York, New Jersey, and eventually the rest of the country came to the towers to help locate survivors and bodies. The dogs and their handlers searched 16 acres of dangerous wreckage. It’s impossible to say how many lives were saved by the dogs, but certa