ccto.

Pronounced “Cry-Check,” after a favorite TV villain. He is ten weeks old and a mini dachshund. His brother is the other pictures is named Finley and seven years old.

Context: Hoco means Homecoming

G’day guys my name is Jay and I’m a wildlife photographer and conservation story teller working with the Khamai Foundation in Ecuador.

I wanted to share our exciting story of the rediscovery of the Mindo Harlequin Toad to try and spread some good conservation news!

High in the Ecuadorian Andes, in a tiny section of the Mindo cloud forest we found survivors of a species thought to be wiped out by Chyrtridiomycosis in 1989.

We also found tadpoles of this species and for the first time in history we were able to photograph and document this stage of their life cycle. Some of these tadpoles were transferred to a special breeding facility to create an ex-situ colony in a safe environment.

This finding was used as evidence to apply for emergency grants to purchase and protect this area of fragile biodiversity from destruction and deforestation. Uh

For context, Asheville is a city of about 100K people and also has one of the biggest populations of urban bears in the country. They show up downtown, in the parking deck at the hospital... There was a video online a few years ago of some cubs playing on a slide at an elementary school playground.

I posted awhile back about rescuing my senior cat Luke, how his previous owner was murdered and the day I came into work and instantly fell in love with him. Since his adoption, it’s been a bit of a rocky road. He was hospitalized a second time for a few days about a month ago, but he’s again making huge progress. He’s come a long way since July - he was skin and bone and just under 2kgs. This week he’s just over 3kg (almost 7lbs!)

His favorite thing right now is basking in the warm sun (I live in New England so those days are far and few between now.) and eating his nightly churu. He’s also a huge fan of catnip. Seriously, he goes crazy for it!

If I have one piece of advice, if you’re thinking of taking a chance on a senior pet in need, go for it. They might have a lot of their youth behind them, but they’ve got the best days ahead of them. ❤️

Debbie Shields owns Confessions Bar in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn