Yes, I’m an animal lover. All kinds, big and little, untamed and gentle, it doesn’t matter. (My husband has said no to a goat, but I’m still hoping he’ll relent. We agreed years ago that we would always have a dog in our lives, he’s not so sure about adding a goat to that mix!) God’s creatures amaze me. That’s why you see links here to (bear) and (turtle) sites. These places have just appeared (like magic) in stories* and while the links are available in each book, I also wanted to make them ready to click on here! Enjoy the updates on the bears, and I hope you get a chance to watch turtles make their way to the ocean. It’s on my bucket list!
*A bear appeared in “Mr. Houdini is Missing” a Crooked Branch Mystery. To my knowledge, a bear has never been spotted in Old Hickory, but this is, after all, a book of fiction! The fictional bear was named “Old Hickory” and was injured. The story has the bear taken to the very real Appalachian Bear Rescue in Townsend, Tennessee.
Visit their website here: https://appalachianbearrescue.org.
The website gives you an inside look at the care given to our Smokey Mountain bears and bears brought from other places that need their expertise.
*Turtles play a prominent part in an AbbyDoodle book, “Abby’s Shells”. Sanibel Island, off the coast of Fort Myers in Florida, is one of my favorite places. My family is fortunate in that we are able to rent a cottage on the island from a dear friend once a year and spend a week on the most interesting and relaxing beach I’ve experienced.
The beautiful beaches of Sanibel and Captiva Islands contain many ‘live’ seashells, making it a wonderful place to introduce children to the conservation programs in place to protect the sea turtle.
Loggerhead sea turtles arrive on Sanibel and Captiva for the nesting season each year, and the SCCF Sea Turtle Program surveys miles of beach searching for tracks that the sea turtle left behind when she emerged from the sea the night before. If the turtle successfully laid eggs, the nest is watched over until the eggs hatch and there are signs of the hatchlings crawling to the Gulf.
Please visit http://www.sccf.org/our-work/sea-turtles for more information.