Into the Wild With the Animal Issue

When batting around pitches for the Animal Issue each year, Seven Days scribes naturally gravitate toward stories about our furry companions — dogs and cats, especially. But this isn’t the Pet Issue. So we have to dig a little deeper and explore the full range of Vermont’s animal kingdom.

Once upon a time, that kingdom was ruled by the catamount — aka mountain lion. But the apex predator has been gone from the Green Mountains since the late 1800s. Now, lawmakers and biologists are weighing whether to bring catamounts back to Vermont. Supporters cite the success of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park. Opponents cite the fact that they’re freaking mountain lions.

Ahem.

For some, spotting a catamount in the wild would be the thrill of a lifetime. Bernie Paquette feels that way whenever he spies a new bee. The citizen naturalist has photographed 114 of Vermont’s 350 wild bee species, including 104 in his own backyard.

While Paquette’s interest is largely rooted in science and curiosity, there’s an art to his work. So he might get a kick out of the “Scaly, Slimy, Smooth, and Slithery“ exhibit at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, where 32 artists celebrate frogs, toads, salamanders, turtles, snakes and lizards. Can’t get enough of these cold-blooded creatures? Don’t miss this weekend’s Remarkable Reptile Day in Quechee.

Meanwhile, “Birds and Myth,” a community exhibition at Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington, features works by more than 50 artists and poets exploring often-obscure avian stories.

Of course, pets are still the stars of the show this week. That’s because we love our animal companions like family. Aging in Place With Pets, a volunteer program in Burlington, helps prevent elderly and disabled people from having to relinquish their furry friends, because as any pet owner knows, they can give us purpose, love and comfort.

That’s one reason you’ll find therapy dogs at Burlington International Airport to calm anxious travelers. Perhaps someday BTV could offer other soothing critters, too. To augment her income from selling skyr, an Icelandic-inspired dairy product, Villa Villekulla Farm’s Lauren Gitlin has considered training her snuggly retired dairy goats as therapy animals.

Despite our best efforts, sometimes the call of the wild is too strong for our pets to ignore. They are still animals, after all. Should your dog or cat go missing, call South Burlington pet detective Sue Wear. She’s been tracking down lost pets for more than a decade.

Finally, we couldn’t do an Animal Issue without including several pages of ridiculously cute pet pictures. As always, the Best of the Beasts contest anchors this edition with an irresistible photo spread.

Or as catamounts new to Vermont might call it, a lunch menu.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Into the Wild | There’s more to the Animal Issue than cute pet photos. (But there’s lots of those, too.)”