West With Giraffes

by Lynda Rutledge

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.

whenever I locked eyes with an animal I felt something more soulful than I ever felt from the humans I knew,

This world of misery is in dire need of some natural wonder to learn secrets to life from.”

I see Africa as big as day . . . I see all the wonders of the world, waiting out there to be seen,”

they lay down . . . both of them together . . . with me and only me standing guard for lions above. And I thought my heart would bust.

I never passed up the chance to feed a stray dog or cat or stray anything that passed my way, and I never trusted a soul who didn’t like animals.

it goes extinct with those creatures of God’s pure Eden, that’d be a crying shame—my shame. Because if ever I could claim to have seen the face of God, it was in the colossal faces of the giraffes.

We have big, big things to worry about in this new century, extinctions of beloved animals among the most heartbreaking. But there’s good news: all over the world, conservation organizations, research centers, aquariums, sanctuaries, foundations, and zoological institutions like today’s San Diego Zoo Global are fighting the good fight for endangered species—and for ourselves, since we now know there will be a human toll for losing even creatures as small as bees and butterflies.