Animals

American Beavers

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WE DO NOT DESERVE BEAVERS. Well, OK. American beavers can be complicated neighbors. They sometimes interfere with our plans, tunneling into canal banks, flooding farmers’ fields and blocking and rerouting waterways. They can destroy infrastructure and take down power lines. They harvest landscape plantings. But oh, the beneficial things they do for us while they …

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Animals have their stories, too

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by Hal Walter

It’s all about the animals, and maybe it’s about people, as well.

Animals were a big part of the decision to live out here, to follow this path. And animals, both domesticated and wild, continue to be a big part of the magic of this existence.

Afternoons linger into evening this time of year, and we decided to take our son Harrison for a ride on one of our saddle donkeys, Ace. About a half mile from the house I was leading Ace, and Mary was walking behind. I felt some minor calamity on the lead rope and turned to see my son falling. It really wasn’t much of a rodeo, but Harrison took a tumble anyway. Suddenly the evening became a blur of a screaming child who suddenly became very cooperative. A call to the clinic, and a drive to town. X-rays. A fractured arm. Splint. On the way home we stopped to watch two young foxes play along the road in Silver Cliff. Harrison acknowledged the foxes and I knew everything would be OK.

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Attack on biker fuels comments about dogs

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Brief by Central Staff

Animals – August 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Call it a battle of the Old West and the New West. A woman competing in a mountain bike race in the vicinity of Camp Hale, the former 10th Mountain Division training base between Leadville and Minturn, was attacked by two Great Pyrenees.

The Vail Daily said no report of the injuries to the bicycle rider was available.

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Humane Society needs more money

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Brief by Central Staff

Animals – December 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

Based in Buena Vista and serving the entire region, the Ark-Valley Humane Society is conducting its third annual Friends of the Shelter fund drive.

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Office tomcat dies

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Brief by Central Staff

Animals – February 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hector, the official tomcat of Colorado Central world headquarters, died Jan. 10 from a lethal injection after incurring end stage renal disease. He was about 17. His birth date is unknown, but it was on a spring day in 1986 that he found Columbine in the alley and adopted her.

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Leadville’s dogged reputation

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Brief by Central Staff

Animals – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

We were talking to a friend in Leadville a couple of weeks ago, when she interrupted herself: “Oh no, a TV satellite truck just pulled up in front of the courthouse. What is it this time?”

Leadville has been getting a lot of dog-related publicity lately, none of it good, and this was another segment. First there was the deputy sheriff who took a dog to the dump and shot it, but failed to kill it.

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Dog Tales: George’s Pup

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Brief by Dave Delling

Animals – December 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine

The major drinking place in Silver Cliff — the place that looks like it doesn’t belong there — was filling up. I sat at the end of the bar, sipping beer while slowly warming after a long day outside. February is usually tough in Custer County and this one was no exception.

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Dog Tales: The Challenge

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Brief by Jim Forrest

Animals – December 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine

Before the back-yard fence could be constructed, we tied our German shepherd on a long rope secured by a swivel anchor near the house so that the dog had a large arc from one back corner of the house to the opposite one. After several whip lashes as a consequence of testing the length of the rope, she learned the outer limits of her domain. What she couldn’t cover physically, however, she guarded vocally. Judging from her activity, squirrels were the ones she watched out for the most. In terms of energy spent, they posed the most threat to the homestead.

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Gimme Shelter … Please

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Article by Clint Driscoll & Diane Alexander

Animals – March 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine

For the past six years, Diane Godynick-Clements has rescued cats in Buena Vista. At last count, she had sixteen in her house, sixteen cats that she was trying to place in good homes. People know about Diane, which explains why cats get dumped off at her house without any notes, food, or support money. Once, after a Humane Society fundraiser, she came home to find a frightened dog tied to her fencepost.

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