Animals Make Me Smile

I was driving down a two-lane road near my house recently when I saw some horses. I immediately smiled to myself.

I then realized that seeing animals nearly always makes me smile. Sometimes I see donkeys along this road. I may spot a coyote when I'm out for a walk in my neighborhood, or perhaps I spot someone walking a dog. One day I saw a couple of people on horseback waiting for the 'walk' light to come on so they could cross a road in the crosswalk!

And of course, seeing wild animals -- whether in Yellowstone or Africa or Alaska -- makes my soul happy. Spending time with mother grizzly bears and their cubs, or sitting quietly as I watch a group of lionesses with their cubs, or three adult male lions waking up from a nap -- is the pinnacle of happiness for me. Sometimes I put my camera down and just enjoy watching animals be animals. Watching one of my dogs tear through the back yard with a small toy in his mouth always makes me laugh. Sometimes one of my small dogs will get up from a nap, walk to her blankets on the floor, and roll around on her back, burying her face in the blankets.

Seeing or reading about the cruelty to which some humans subject animals, be it trophy hunting or deliberate cruelty to a domestic animal, breaks my heart. But I try to focus on the joy animals bring me. I am at my happiest when I'm out in nature photographing wildlife. Few things are better than spotting a leopard relaxing in a tree, or a cheetah family hurrying across a crocodile-infested river, or a mother elephant helping her youngster up a muddy river bank.

In my office I have a beautiful head shot of a black wolf photographed by a Yellowstone-area photographer, an Ansel Adams print from Yosemite, a replica elephant head, another photograph of a wolf, and photos of my dogs. I'm about to frame an hang a beautiful head shot of a leopard I saw in Kenya last year.

There is so much hatred and negativity in the world. The nightly news is filled with negative stories, as is my Facebook newsfeed. So it's good for my soul to smile at the simple beauty of animals, be they American or African, domestic or wild.