DENVER — Josh McGirk was skeptical about animal communicators.

The south Denver resident loved his four-legged family members and was at his wits’ end after adopting a new cat, Amelie, who his two other cats were terrorizing.

He heard mixed reviews about people who claimed to be able to communicate with pets, but Amelie’s separation ...Read more

The Garden Guy worked hard last week getting the Sopranos planted before the arrival of much needed rain. If you are not familiar with Sopranos, they are a group of six colors of impatiens that have put pure joy back into the shade garden.

In music, sopranos are those with angelic voices. High-pitched voices that can bring about a standing ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — On a recent warm May day, bundles of small sun-kissed-colored fruit droop from a towering tree in Raffy Espiritu’s backyard in Milpitas. They soak in the light and ripen in the heat before suddenly splitting from the branches at the slightest tug of Espiritu’s hand.

At first glance, the harvest looks like a puzzling ...Read more

President Donald Trump thinks kids can get by without 30 dolls this Christmas. He has a point. Heck, even three dolls would have been a luxury in the 1930s, when Marlys Burgess was growing up in Bertha, Minnesota.

“I was on a farm. I had no friends,” she said. “I just had my Shirley Temple doll. It moved with me. Now, kids have 15 dolls ...Read more

It’s been years since Carrie Brummer has seen Teak, her dark-haired steed. Will he remember her?

Sgt. Adrian Infante encourages Brummer to go ahead and say hi. Teak is waiting for her inside the stable.

“He’ll recognize you,” he assures her.

Brummer, who is 66, is on the brink of ugly-crying at the horse barn in Maple Plain, Minnesota...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It’s a crisp, clear Southern California day, and I’m at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park with Austin Nicassio. He’s ripping up a steep dirt trail covered in rocks and roots in what looks, at first blush, like a miniature bulldozer. Until this moment, I wouldn’t have considered this particular hike to be accessible to those ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Two of downtown Fort Lauderdale’s newest residents enjoyed a sunny stroll on the Riverwalk. The weather was warm, neighbors walked their dogs and downtown’s many construction sites boomed with noise.

None of the hubbub seemed to bother Jade and Journey. They’re 5-week-old twin sisters who napped peacefully as ...Read more

STACY, Minn. — The sedatives worked quickly on the 300-pound black bear named Ethel. She circled in the morning sun and then dizzily sat down, huffing at her handlers as she laid her head near the corner of her pen and fell asleep.

The first thing Peggy Callahan noticed was the paw on the bear’s back right leg. The claws were twice as long ...Read more

This is a love story about a couple who found each other a little later in life, after their kids were grown, after their first marriages ended, after life threw a few unexpected twists their way.

But it’s also a love story about books. Children’s books, specifically.

First, the couple.

Katy Coffey is a delightful, hilarious, artistic ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Doug Ruch, 55, with a graying beard and breathless positive energy, knows two things for certain:

One: He’s going to die — and not later, but sooner.

In January, Ruch was gobsmacked to be diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer and told that, without the kind of aggressive chemotherapy and other treatments ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Chicken owners from across the Twin Cities have been known to dump fowl on Miranda Meyer‘s St. Paul doorstep in the middle of the night.

Outside her house on Hatch Avenue — yes, St. Paul’s “chicken lady” lives on Hatch Avenue — neighbors stop and watch the birds strut toward feed scattered near Meyer‘s black ...Read more

In an astonishing occurrence, all of my Superbells Pomegranate Punch calibrachoas came through the winter of the weekly polar vortex. OK, I’ll admit I did take some to the garage. Those in the heavy pots that I left outside have come through with an incredible display of beauty.

Superbells Pomegranate Punch is like the garden’s version of ...Read more

In online dating, I often see two competing factors:

1. People genuinely want to meet someone great (or at least they think they do).

2. People are lazy and don’t take the time to do online dating well … or at all.

This conversation happened to a client of mine (the woman in this exchange) on Bumble:

Her: Do you still drink iced coffee ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I was 23 when I finally got my own place. There was this attractive guy who lived down the hall from me and we had some flirty exchanges that eventually led to a hookup. Just a one-time thing, and afterward we'd only exchange quick hellos if we ran into each other. A few months later, I met my current boyfriend, who I've been with ...Read more

A visit to the emergency room is no fun for anybody. But older people face challenges that can make a tough situation worse.

The lights, noise and endless activity can be confusing and even trigger delirium. Slick floors pose fall risks, as do hospital beds that can be hard to get in and out of.

Some emergency departments, however, are taking ...Read more

PART II of II

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am the principal of a private, secular K-8 school. Every year that I have been principal, the behaviors start out fine in the fall, and slowly deteriorate after that, no matter how hard we work at it. They are particularly bad in our middle school. Some of our programming involves having class meetings when ...Read more

Q. I need advice. When I met my ex-boyfriend, he said he was divorced, but I found out that he wasn’t divorced, only separated. He said he was going back for the kids; he has two. But he also wanted to continue to see me. I told him to make up his mind. He chose his wife. Now, there’s an even bigger problem. I found out I am pregnant with a ...Read more

I have come to the realization that I do not have the time nor patience for all the high-tech innovations designed to make my life more marvelous. I have all the marvelous I can handle right now.

This morning, I replaced a burned-out kitchen light bulb. It was 9:16 when I started the process. Replacing the old bulb took less than a minute, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Olivia Cashman hopes residents planning some home improvements will consider some “wood from the hood” or even a sink from a recently deconstructed library.

As household budgets are increasingly stretched thin, salvaging used materials from a recent demolition is a good way to keep renovation costs down.

Cashman is the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- It was afternoon at the convent, and that meant bingo.

A dozen elderly women, some in wheelchairs, others with their walkers pushed aside, studied the triplets of cards in front of them. A life-size cardboard cutout of Pope Francis, newly deceased, waved beneficently down at them.

“Call the right numbers!” joked Sister ...Read more