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Finding Your Lost Dog: A Step-by-Step Guide

Timing is critical—follow these steps immediately when your dog goes missing. Most dogs stay within 1 – 2 miles of home in the first 24 hours

To view on Substack: https://thekindlife.substack.com/p/finding-your-lost-dog-a-step-by-step

Lost Dog Action Plan

Do this first

  1. Search your home and property. Check under beds, behind furniture, in closets, basements, garages, sheds, under porches, under decks, in shrubs, and in other small hiding spots.
  2. Look in the immediate area. Walk your yard and the streets nearby. Call your dog calmly and listen for barking, whining, or movement. Bring a favorite treat or toy, but do not panic or shout.
  3. Tell everyone in your household. Make sure every person in the home knows the dog is missing so everyone can help search.

Then do this

  1. Contact the microchip company. If your dog is microchipped, report the dog missing right away and confirm that your phone number, address, and emergency contact information are current. Ask them to flag the dog as lost.
  2. Search within a 1 – 2 mile radius. Walk or drive slowly through nearby streets. Ask neighbors to check their yards, porches, garages, sheds, crawl spaces, and security cameras. Leave your phone number and a recent photo with nearby residents.
  3. Call shelters, animal control, vets, and police. Contact local shelters, rescue groups, animal control, and veterinary clinics as soon as possible. Visit shelters in person if you can, and keep checking back every day or every other day because a dog may not be logged right away, and few shelters hold animals beyond 72 hours.
  4. Create a scent station. Put your worn clothing, your dog’s bed, blanket, or favorite toy outside near where the dog was last seen. Add a bowl of fresh water. Avoid leaving food out, since it can attract wildlife or other animals.

Keep spreading the word

  1. Make highly visible, easily readable flyers (readable by people in a passing car). Use a clear, recent color photo, your phone number, the dog’s name, breed, color, size, date lost, and last known location. Post flyers on phone poles, at intersections, pet stores, vet offices, grocery stores, parks, apartment complexes, and community bulletin boards. Leave your address off the flyer.
  2. Post online. Share the dog’s photo and details on social media, neighborhood apps, local community pages, and lost pet websites. These include Facebook, Nextdoor.com, local lost pet groups, and sites like PetcoLove Lost and PawBoost.com. Include the same information as your flyers and make posts public for maximum visibility.
  3. Check lost-pet databases. Look through online lost-and-found pet listings and local shelter postings. Upload your dog’s information if the site allows it. Check these listings often because updates can happen quickly.
  4. Use a humane trap if needed. If your dog is scared, injured, or avoiding people, a humane trap may help. You can often get one from your local animal shelter, rescue organization, or animal control office, and some pet supply stores or hardware stores may also sell or rent them. Place it in a quiet area near where the dog was last seen and add familiar-smelling items such as a blanket or clothing. Check the trap frequently and use one sized properly for your dog.
  5. Keep searching every day. Repeat the search, shelter visits, and online checks. Ask neighbors and local walkers to keep watching. Many dogs are found after several days, so persistence matters.

If you spot your dog

Do not chase the dog. Stay calm, crouch down, look away slightly, and speak softly. Use familiar words and let the dog come to you if possible.

Prevent this next time

Check fencing, gates, doors, and latches once your dog is home. Keep ID tags on the collar, keep the microchip information updated, and practice recall regularly. A GPS collar can also help for dogs that escape easily.

Photo courtesy of Michal Mikulec on Unsplash

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Animals Feel Emotions—Science Confirms It

Grief. Guilt. Friendship. What their emotions demand of us

To view on Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-195253581

You’ve probably seen a dog hang its head after chewing your shoe, or your cat curling up next to you when you’re sad. But do animals truly feel emotions like joy, fear, or grief?

Numerous studies show emotions aren’t just human—they’re a mix of brain activity, behavior, and conscious feelings in many species. Emotions involve physical changes (like a racing heart), behavior (like a smile, a wagging tail), brain signals, thoughts, and feelings (that inner “yay!” or “oh no”). Humans report feelings easily. Animals can’t use words to definitively convey what they’re feeling, but their brains light up like ours during emotional moments. For animals, scientists look for brain patterns tied to awareness—ones that appear when animals make complex decisions beyond simple reflex. Research suggests that mammals, birds, and many more species experience emotions consciously, and this should have implications for how humans treat other living beings.

Animal Examples

Dogs showing mood-based choices: Dogs housed in enriched rooms (toys, social time) eagerly approach sounds that sometimes predict treats (optimistic). Dogs in plain kennels hesitate more (pessimistic). Scientists determine “happy” vs. “wary” by housing conditions and baseline behavior. Mood literally changes how dogs gamble on uncertainty.

Chimpanzees consoling each other: After fights, chimps embrace and groom the loser (not the winner), cutting stress hormones. This targeted care mirrors human empathy—suggesting they feel others’ distress.

Elephants mourning family: Wild elephants gently touch and linger over skeletons of dead relatives (even years later), ignoring the bones of strangers. This selective behavior shows emotional memory, not instinct.

Crows helping companions: Crows see a trapped friend and use tools to free them instead of eating available food. This costly choice suggests felt concern, like human friendship. When food is right there but they prioritize rescue, it shows that crows’ emotional bonds override immediate survival needs.

Why It Matters

Real emotions mean real suffering. Beyond factory farms and barren cages, we trap wildlife in roadside zoos, abandon pets to streets, poison rats in agony, test cosmetics on rabbits’ eyes, and hunt for sport while they feel terror. Humane care literally makes animals feel optimistic, and true compassion demands we rethink every human-animal interaction. Pets, farm animals, wildlife, lab subjects, even “pests”—all deserve recognition as emotional beings. Every choice—from what we buy, to how we eat, to how we vote, to what we speak up about—carries ethical weight.

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Compassion in Action

Ask: “What’s causing my pet’s stress signals?”
• Separation whine? Puzzle feeder pre-departure
• Fireworks anxiety? White noise machine
• Pacing cat? Extra window perch
Science shows enriched environments create optimistic cognitive bias. You’re literally making them feel hopeful.

Sources:
• New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024)
• Bekoff, The Emotional Lives of Animals (revised) (2024)
• Paul et al., “Comparative Science of Emotion,” Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 108 (2020): 749–70
• Mendl et al., “Cognitive Bias,” Trends Cogn. Sci. 14 (2010): 403–10
de Waal and Andrews, “Animal Compassion,” Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 82 (2017): 71–79

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Knowing

https://substack.com/@likecatsanddogs/note/c-248858467?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2vw401

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When Helping Animals Never Feels Like Enough—Here’s What You Can Actually Do

A personal reflection on compassion, responsibility, and 20 practical ways anyone can reduce animal suffering

I confess that I’m almost never satisfied with what I do to help ease animal suffering. So much more can be done, and I often find myself wondering: at what point can I say, there—that’s good enough for now? For every animal I rescue, care for, or arrange help for, there are millions of others who need it. I can understand the urge to throw up one’s hands in defeat, because cruelty by humans is everywhere—institutionalized abuse, neglect, harmful ignorance, and intentional harm. Its pervasiveness can inure us to it, allowing us to more or less ignore it.

I admit to feeling something akin to envy (but not necessarily respect) for people who seem oblivious to animal suffering. It is understandable that one might turn away from it because of the perspective, what can only one person do? The answer, I think, is probably a lot more than you realize, without wholly upending your life. For 20 ways to make a difference, see the “Compassion in Action” section below.

I struggle with finding some degree of peace with what I actually do. The issue, as I see it, is that because the need is vast, the sense that it’s never enough is pretty much true. I can get stuck in that loop. The question for me becomes how to find balance: I want to extend a bit what I actually do, and I want to take some quiet satisfaction in knowing that what I do helps, rather than being crushed by the sheer enormity of the need.

I find this anonymous quote powerful: “Saving one animal doesn’t change the world, but the world changes for that one animal.”

Those of you who honor and love animals: I would love to hear your thoughts in the “Leave a comment” section, below, on how you navigate this issue.

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Compassion in Action

20 Easy Things Anyone Can Do to Reduce Animal Suffering

You don’t need to “save all of them” to make a real difference. Small, consistent actions from ordinary people can quietly reshape how animals live in this world. Here are 20 simple things anyone can do, now.

1. Adopt from a shelter or rescue first.
Every time someone chooses adoption over a breeder or pet store, they pull a life out of the shelter system and reduce demand for mass breeding operations.

2. Spay or neuter your pets.
Routine surgery prevents unplanned litters, eases pressure on shelters, and often improves pets’ health and behavior.

3. Care for community animals humanely.
If you see stray cats or dogs, provide clean water and appropriate food, and connect them with local TNR or rescue groups instead of ignoring them or shooing them away.

4. Speak up when you see neglect or abuse.
If you witness serious cruelty or clearly unsafe conditions, report it to local animal‑control or humane investigators; early intervention can stop escalation.

5. Buy cruelty‑free and humane‑certified products.
Choose household and cosmetic brands that avoid animal testing and, where possible, look for certifications that signal higher welfare standards.

6. Have a bird feeder or birdbath.
A simple source of water or supplemental food can sustain birds and small wildlife through harsh seasons, especially in urban or suburban areas. Place birdbaths on the ground so that non-flying animals can reach the water as well.

7. Plant native, wildlife‑friendly plants.
Even a small yard or planter full of native flowers and shrubs supports pollinators, birds, and small mammals with almost no extra effort.

8. Cut back on animal‑product consumption.
Shifting even a few meals a week toward plant‑based options lowers demand for factory‑farming systems that cause massive suffering.

9. Support ethical brands and sanctuaries.
When you buy pet products, choose companies that donate to animal‑welfare groups or help fund sanctuaries and rescue work.

10. Donate supplies or money monthly to a shelter.
Shelters always need food, towels, blankets, and litter; even a small recurring donation can free up staff time and resources for direct care.

11. Foster an animal when you can.
Short‑term fostering gives traumatized or overcrowded animals a calmer home, improves their chances of adoption, and opens up kennel space for others.

12. Volunteer a few hours a month.
Cleaning, walking dogs, socializing shy cats, or helping with admin can dramatically stretch a small shelter’s capacity.

13. Organize a small donation drive.
Consider turning birthdays, holidays, or social events into opportunities to collect pet‑food, toys, or supplies for a local shelter.

14. Share adoptable‑animal posts online.
One shared shelter post can connect an animal with the right home far faster than waiting passively.

15. Talk kindly and clearly about responsible pet‑ownership.
Gently share basics (vet care, spaying/neutering, enrichment, not “gifting” live animals) with friends and family; this can prevent future relinquishment and surrender.

16. Support humane‑education programs.
Donate to, volunteer with, or promote school and community programs that teach children empathy toward animals and the impact of our choices.

17. Engage with local animal‑protection laws.
Sign petitions, attend town meetings, or contact officials to support stronger anti‑cruelty laws, community‑cat programs, and animal‑shelter funding.

18. Avoid products and experiences that exploit animals.
Skip exotic‑leather fashion, wildlife‑derived medicines, and entertainment that relies on stressed or captive animals (circuses, exploitative “photo” ops, etc.).

19. Reduce litter and keep wildlife areas clean.
Picking up trash in parks or along trails keeps plastic and debris out of animals’ mouths and paws and helps ecosystems stay safer.

20. Design your outdoor space with wildlife in mind.
Use native plants, retain unmowed edges, and limit harsh outdoor lighting to help birds, insects, and small mammals survive while minimizing conflict.

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Photos courtesy of Anastasija Puskas, Unsplash and Jafetbyrne Photos

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The Dog Who Knew 340 Words

View on substack: https://thekindlife.substack.com/p/the-dog-who-knew-340-words

Betsy, a border collie in Vienna, was the kind of dog who made people rethink what they believed about animal intelligence. She demonstrated an understanding of more than 340 words. Beyond simply responding to commands, she was able to connect words, objects, photographs, and memory in a way that is language‑like.

Betsy was thought to learn in a similar way to how human toddlers learn through what’s known as fast mapping. This rapid process involves roughly determining or guessing a word’s meaning through context and through contrasting it with already-known words after minimal exposure (in Betsy’s case, generally twice). Over time, Betsy fine-tuned that guess, through repetition and other input, into a more complete understanding (as do toddlers).

Betsy’s feats also included visual abstraction: she recognized photographs as representations of real objects, even unfamiliar ones. In controlled tests, she selected the correct item 38 out of 40 times when presented with an array of 7 physical objects for each photograph. The probability of attaining that level of success repetitively in 1 out of 7 odds is 1 in 200 quintillion billion. Betsy remembered the connections weeks later.

Featured on the cover of National Geographic, Betsy was instrumental in gently unsettling old assumptions. Dogs are often praised for loyalty and obedience, but Betsy hinted at something else too: the ability to learn in a way that resembles thought—something flexible, curious, and deeply adaptive. When people insist that animals operate purely on instinct, cases like Betsy’s expose those assumptions as more self‑serving than scientific.

The way we see animals’ minds is closely tied to how we treat them. When one is convinced that animals are incapable of complex thought, feelings, or durable memory, it becomes easier to justify their neglect, confinement, or misuse. Betsy’s abilities—her fast mapping, grasp of images as symbols, and lasting associations—remind us that other minds may be watching, interpreting, and remembering far more than we may care to admit. Her behavior contributes, in a quiet but powerful way, to dismantling the myth that “lower” animals are too simple to warrant real ethical consideration. By showing that meaning can be constructed, stored, and reused, Betsy unwittingly pushes us to ask: if this dog could learn so deeply, how many other animals are silently bearing scars we never intended and suffering due to our ignorance?

Thoughtful, weekly stories about animals:

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Compassion in Action: Instead of unthinkingly eating a piece of meat, pause and consider what that animal likely endured on its journey to your plate. Ask yourself whether you’re willing to continue contributing to a system where demand drives more suffering.

Photograph courtesy of Pauline Loroy on Unsplash

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One Small Pause, One Saved Life

Saving just one animal won’t change the world, but the world will change for that one animal

It only takes a moment to feel. Just drop your attention to your body and from there, perceive. This cuts through some of the mind chatter and justifications, and for just those few moments, you might feel your body and your emotions without much of a filter, without so many distractions.

What if we all practiced this kind of more direct experience now and then? My guess is that the world—and our treatment of people and animals—would be kinder, our actions would be more intentional.

Here’s one example. The man waited in line at his favorite lunch stand on a busy city street in Philadelphia. He noticed the stray dog, again. He’d seen him on other days but hadn’t given the dog much thought beyond: oh well, survival of the fittest. The skinny dog sidled up to the lunch stand, sniffing the fragrant food and looking up at the people in line, hopeful. Those in line and the passersby ignored the dog. It’s easier and more convenient not to pay heed.

On this particular day, the man looked into the eyes of the dog and recognized something familiar, something like kinship, connection, and he felt empathy. He broke off a corner of his sandwich and held it out for the dog, who took it gingerly, swallowed it without chewing, and looked up at the man expectantly. The man pulled out his cell phone, and searched for and dialed the number for a local animal rescue.

The man sat down on a nearby bench, and the dog followed a few respectful steps behind him. He held out another piece of his sandwich to the dog, who ate it and wagged his tail. Over the next while the man gave the dog the rest of his sandwich in tiny pieces. A small white van pulled up and parked, and a uniformed woman climbed out. She glanced at the man, nodded to him, then crouched down and extended a treat to the dog. As the dog took the food, the woman spoke softly to him and slipped a leash over his head. The dog sat down at her side and looked up at her as if to say, what’s next? The woman asked the man if he’d seen the dog in the area before, made a few notes on her phone, and thanked him for caring enough to make the phone call. She slid open the side door of the van, and the dog jumped in, happily. Off they drove.

The man bought another sandwich, this one for himself. As he walked away, chewing thoughtfully, he felt good.

Compassion in action:

When you see a dog or cat that appears to be lost, hungry, or in danger of injury (like on a street), contact help. To find a list of local rescues and shelters, add in your town/area towns in the following link: Identify local rescues in your area (while the site is focused on adoption, this link lists rescues by locale).

You can also go to google.com and type in:SPCA near meor animal rescue near meor animal control near meor animal services near me

Thoughtful, weekly stories about animals, nature, and what it means to be human: https://thekindlife.substack.com/

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It’s Time to Celebrate Animal Sentience and Stop Squabbling

by Marc Bekoff *

Science and common sense clearly show that diverse animals are feeling beings

The Kind Life Reprinted from Psychology Today with permission by Marc Bekoff

Source: public domain pictures on Pexel

Key points

  • Animal sentience isn’t science fiction.
  • The real question is not if sentience has evolved but why.
  • Several countries have declared that animals, including household companions and wild species, are sentient.
  • There aren’t degrees of sentience among different species; an individual’s joy or pain are their joy or pain.

Being sentient means having the ability to feel. A large body of scientific evidence stemming from studies of diverse species clearly shows that many nonhuman animals (animals) are sentient beings.1 These studies also show that the biodiversity of sentience is large and growing, and insects are finding themselves living well within the sentience arena as full members of the sentience club. Research shows that the emotional lives of insects are richer than many of us have ever imagined—not just in the ever-popular bees, but also in flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and termites too. (Darwin himself thought this! In 1872, he wrote that insects “express anger, terror, jealousy, and love.”)2

A growing number of people, including academics and non-academics, are very interested in what animals think and feel. Two recent posts—”The Eclectic Father of Cognitive Ethology“ about Donald Griffin’s seminal work and an interview with Jonathan Birch titled “The Edge of Sentience: Why Drawing Lines Is So Difficult“—have generated a good number of emails asking me to say more about the study of animal minds (the field called cognitive ethology) and animal sentience.

It’s Time to Stop Wondering If Animals Are Sentient, They Are

Source: By Marc Bekoff

These handwritten words were sent to me by Jane Goodall in 2000 after she attended a wildlife management meeting in Arusha, Tanzania. What caught my eye about her message was how she capitalized the word “feelings.” This was some years before the field of compassionate conservation emerged and began growing in leaps and bounds. In compassionate conservation, the life of every individual is valued, and sentience—their ability to feel—comes to the fore.

Studying animal sentience, consciousness, and emotion isn’t easy. Future data from comparative analyses of animal cognition, along with existing information, should help us along in developing what some people think the field of cognitive ethology needs: namely, an integrative model or theory. Perhaps it was the lack of an integrative theory of cognitive ethology and the presence of one in evolutionary biology that led many people to dismiss tenuous cognitive ethological explanations while accepting often equally tenuous evolutionary stories.

I became very interested in learning more about some of the progress made in cognitive ethology during the past two decades, so I analyzed the references in the 2007 edition of my book on animal emotions and in the highly revised and updated 2024 edition of The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter, for which I used around 300 additional references. I noted a strong increasing trend that more researchers are accepting data that clearly showed that many different animals have rich and deep emotional lives and are sentient. Furthermore, not a single reference among those I added to the new edition led to the conclusion that we are doing all we can for the animals. We can always do more.

The Real Question Is Not If Sentience Has Evolved, but Why

I know some people will respond with something like, “We really don’t know whether pigs don’t like their tails being cut off or being castrated,” or “We need more data to know that animals get bored or enjoy play.” However, it’s high time to recognize that this sort of skepticism is unwarranted and responsible for widespread and continued abuse, given the evidential database we now have. Furthermore, there are no degrees of sentience among different species; an individual’s joy and pain are their joy and pain.

Let’s Stop Bickering

We must stop pretending that we don’t know this or that about animal sentience. We need more action. While we persist in pondering the obvious, ignoring what we already know and have long known, countless nonhuman victims continue to be abused by humankind, every minute of every day, planet-wide.

There are no substitutes for rigorous research and detailed analyses of subtle behavior patterns that often go unnoticed. What we think about the nature of all sorts of animal minds truly matters for their welfare, and so it should matter to us.

People interested in cognitive ethology shouldn’t have axes to grind. Interdisciplinary input is necessary for us to gain a broad view of animal cognition. Regarding animal minds, when philosophers share what they think, they need to be clear. Those who study animal behavior need to share with philosophers and others about what they have learned and the progress being made.

The general public is closely following what science says about animal minds, and we must give them the latest and most reliable information available. We also need to listen to their stories because citizen science can guide research and inform how we interpret and explain the inner lives of other animals.

It’s anti-science to claim that nonhumans aren’t sentient. It’s not anti-science to say we must use what we know on behalf of other animals and must stop pretending we need more data. The list of the continuing mistreatment of animals in places where they have been formally recognized as sentient beings and elsewhere in the world goes on and on.

Declaring nonhumans to be sentient beings is surely most welcome, but for now, it’s often more of a “feel-good” move, another instance of humane-washing. Future human generations will surely look back and wonder how we could have continued failing to use the science, history, and politics of sentience to protect sentient nonhumans.

An essay titled “Animal sentience: history, science, and politics“ by Andrew Rowan and his colleagues is an excellent state-of-the-art summary of what we know and don’t know about animal sentience.

Rowan and his co-authors noted:

So far, however, there has been little evidence that the various declarations that animals are sentient in other countries and regions have had much direct impact on animal protection legislation or how animals are actually being treated.

Nevertheless, it is very unlikely that incorporating animal sentience language in legislation would be harmful to the interests of animals in any way.

We can, and we must do better. Solid science, evolutionary biology, comparative psychology, and a dose of common sense can lead the way. Surely, it’s time to stop wondering if other animals are sentient—they clearly are.

* Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published more than 30 books including The Emotional Lives of Animals and has won many awards for his research and writing. His homepage is marcbekoff.com

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References

1) Why Animal Sentience Must Be Used to Reform Constitutions; It’s Time To Stop Wondering if Animals Are Sentient—They Are; The Emotional Lives of Dogs and Wolves and Why They Matter; The Lives of Sea Turtles and Why They Matter; The Emotional Lives of Animals and Why They Matter; The Fascinating Complex Minds of Bees and Why They Matter; Animal Emotions, Animal Sentience, and Why They Matter; Mindful Anthropomorphism Works, So Let’s Stop the Bickering; The State of Animal Consciousness, Sentience, and Emotions; Liv Baker et al. Rethinking Animal Consciousness Research to Prioritize Well-Being, Cambridge Corp, October 28, 2024. Also see: Granting Rights to Animals Doesn’t Undermine Human Rights.

2) A recent and detailed review of the evidence by Matilda Gibbons and her colleagues titled “Can insects feel pain? A review of the neural and behavioural evidence“ makes it plausible that various insects are indeed sentient and feel pain.

Balcombe, Jonathan 2007. Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good. St. Martin’s Griffin.

Batavia, Chelsea et al. 2021. Emotion as a source of moral understanding in conservation. Conservation Biology.

Bekoff, Marc. The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter. New World Library, 2024.

_____. 2010, The Animal Manifesto. New World Library.

_____. Spain Joins Other Nations in Declaring Animals Are Sentient.

_____. Animal Emotions, Animal Sentience, and Why They Matter.

_____. Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Senses.

Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff. The Animals’ Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age. Beacon Books, 2017.

Wallach, A. D., Bekoff, M., Batavia, C., Nelson, M. P., & Ramp, D. 2018. Summoning compassion to address the challenges of conservation. Conservation Biology.

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Elephant Mourning

Elephants have vigils and rituals for their dead. A glimpse into animal emotions.

Field guides, trackers, and researchers have seen it again and again: Elephants do something extraordinary when they pass the body or remains of another elephant—they stop, become still, and then gently and slowly caress the elephant with the tips of their trunks. They emit low rumbling sounds and distress calls. They drag over branches or tear up grasses and cover the carcass gently. They do this ritual even if the elephant was not part of their herd. Elephants show no interest in the carcasses of other species.

When they come upon a dying elephant, their behavior is more active, protective, and interventional. They try to lift and prop up the elephant, clustering around it and bracing it front and back to keep it upright. They trumpet and roar and guard the dying elephant—some facing outward and some tending the elephant.

Mother elephants are at the heart of some of the most haunting accounts of elephant grief. Researchers and rangers describe elephant cows staying with a stillborn or dead calf for days, trying desperately to lift and nudge the body. An Asian elephant near Tumkur, India, was recorded jostling her lifeless calf for more than 24 hours, her ears fluttering in distress. A group of 12 adults gathered around her, apparently trying to console her. In multiple documented cases, mothers have lifted dead calves with their trunks and carried them for days.

Scholars of animal sentience, such as Marc Bekoff, Frans de Waal, and Jonathan Bird, argue that the question is no longer whether animals feel, but why sentience evolved—and why we keep doubting it. Their point is disarmingly simple: if an animal screams when injured, plays when safe, and shows every outward sign of distress when its young dies, insisting we “need more data” before acknowledging its experience becomes less about scientific caution and more about moral convenience. Elephants—with their vigils, their bone caresses, and their attempts to care for a dying tribe member—push that discomfort to the surface.

When an elephant stands over the bones of a long-dead companion, falling into stillness and tracing the skull with her trunk, she invites us to widen our circle of empathy—and to admit that grief may not be ours alone. We can choose to label that behavior as mere instinct, or we can acknowledge that we are watching another intelligent, deeply social species grapple with loss in its own way.

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Crows May Seem Ominous—But They’re Backyard Geniuses Smarter Than Your Dog

They hold 17-year grudges, craft tools like kids, and gift treasures to kind feeders

To read on Substack: https://thekindlife.substack.com/p/crows-may-seem-ominousbut-theyre

Crows carry an eerie reputation (medieval folklore linked them with death, ill-omens, and the supernatural), but their genius rivals apes and young children in problem-solving, memory, and social savvy. Consider New Caledonian crows, close relatives of the American crow, which have been observed in University of Auckland labs bending wire into hooks or carving twigs to fish food from tight tubes, demonstrating tool-making skills once thought unique to humans. Crows in labs ace the 6th-century Aesop’s fable “The Crow and the Pitcher”: after viewing water-filled cylinders from various angles, they drop optimally sized stones to raise the water level and snag a floating treat—matching toddlers’ reasoning skills. Magpies, a fellow corvid (corvids include crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, and jays), pass the mirror self-recognition test—a rare feat outside of great apes and a few cetaceans like dolphins.

Crows lock onto human faces with remarkable precision, holding grudges against threats for up to 17 years (longer than an individual lifetime), sharing that intel across family networks, and even teaching hatchlings born long after the fact. In a University of Washington study by corvid researcher John Marzluff, 7 crows were temporarily trapped by a masked person in 2006; in 2013, 47 of the campus’s 53 crows (family networks) mobbed the mask-wearer. The scolding continued, gradually declining over the years, and ending in 2023—showing multi-generational grudge-sharing. Their brains, though walnut-sized, pack twice the neuron density of great apes and enable skills like cooperating in family crews to defend turf and outsmart rivals. Crows outpace dogs in mechanical puzzles, retrieving tools via insight where canines guess-and-check. On lab puzzles demanding multi-step logic, crows match the causal reasoning of 5- to 7-year-olds, dismantling traps and inventing tools on the fly.

Then there’s the “gifting”—one of crowkind’s most enchanting quirks, backed by verified anecdotes collected by experts like Marzluff. If you feed them consistently, they might repay you with treasures: a shiny button, a lost earring, a pierced soda-tab necklace, or a candy heart neatly placed on your feeder. In Seattle, eight-year-old Gabi Mann fed neighborhood crows for years; they responded by curating a collection of beads, metal scraps, a broken pearl earring, and half a “Best Friends” heart pendant. Marzluff himself documented a man finding a candy conversation heart perched on his bird feeder after regular feedings, as well as crows threading soda tabs onto pine sprigs and leaving them precisely where food appeared daily.

Here in Pennsylvania, the pattern holds: a bird-feeding friend in western PA shared three photos of gifts left by crows—a man’s tie, a rubber band, a bit of fluff (see below)—placed deliberately on the porch adjacent to her daily peanut feeding station.

Scientists like Marzluff caution that intent remains tricky (is it true reciprocity, or is it learned conditioning where dropped trinkets prompt more peanuts?), but a 2014 study from Austria’s Konrad Lorenz Institute found ravens and crows far more eager to exchange objects with familiar humans than with strangers, supporting social reciprocity over mere conditioning.

When next you spot a flock of crows (the medieval phrase “murder of crows” is falling into disuse) gathering in your yard, don’t consider it ominous. It’s elite wildlife intelligence at work—sharper than your dog in memory and mechanics, with a dash of mysterious generosity. Your next backyard visitor might just leave you a gift.

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Crow gift photos – anonymous
Crow photo courtesy of Sonny Mauricio

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How to Help a Neglected Backyard Dog in Winter (Even If It’s Not Yours)

All over the U.S., backyard dogs are shivering through freezing nights with no real shelter. Here’s exactly what you can do today.

Help a 24/7 backyard dog

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