At 9 am on a Wednesday, Gaby Rountree waves goodbye to Mila as she is picked up to go to day care in Mexico City. "It has made her so independent, so friendly and so lovely with others," Ms Rountree says joyfully. She shuts the front door and turns to homeschooling her two children. For Mila is not a child, but the family dog.

Schools and nurseries have been shut in Mexico for a year owing to the pandemic. But doggy day care is booming. Doggy carers offer claw-trims and let beloved pets play outdoors.   "Many clients now have a home office or are worried about their dogs becoming too attached to them," explains Montserrat, an owner of a dog day-care centre, as she strokes a tiny dog on her lap. The facility, in the rich neighbourhood, also has a camp where dogs can spend a relaxing weekend in the countryside.

Mexico's rising passion for dogs has coincided (同时发生) with falling human fertility. In the mid-1980s, a Mexican woman could expect to have four children; now, only two. In the long run, as people have grown richer and the returns to education have risen, families have shrunk. For some, a dog is a lovable substitute. The most devoted owners buy clothes and throw birthday parties for their dogs. Many restaurants welcome dogs and provide drinking water. Some restaurants even offer a full doggy menu. Parks have “doggy areas”. Pet beauty salons provide not only baths and trims but massages and acupuncture, too.

Mexico's spoilt pets are probably enjoying the pandemic more than its locked — down kids. By one estimate, nearly two-thirds of the children have missed a year of school because of coronavirus. For mothers such as Ms Rountree doggy day care offers some relief from covid-induced hard boring work. But she will not stop worrying until her children, too, are let off the chain and back into the classroom.

A rainforest is an area covered by tall trees with the total high rainfall spreading quite equally through the year and the temperature rarely dipping below 16℃. Rainforests have a great effect on the world environment because they can take in heat from the sun and adjust the climate. Without the forest cover, these areas would reflect more heat into the atmosphere, warming the rest of the world. Losing the rainforests may also influence wind and rainfall patterns, potentially causing certain natural disasters all over the world.

In the past hundred years, humans have begun destroying rainforests in search of three major resources: land for crops, wood for paper and other products, and land for raising farm animals. This action affects the environment as a whole. For example, a lot of carbon dioxide in the air comes from burning the rainforests. We obviously have a need for the resources we gain from cutting trees but we will suffer much more than we will benefit.

There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, when people cut down trees, generally they can only use the land for a year or two. Secondly, cutting large sections of rainforests may provide a good supply of wood right now, but in the long run it actually reduces the world’s wood supply.

Rainforests are often called the world’s drugstore. More than 25% of the medicines we use today come from plants in rainforests. However, fewer than 1% of rainforest plants have been examined for their medical value. It is extremely likely that our best chance to cure diseases lies somewhere in the world’s shrinking（减少的）rainforests.

Running like the wind, roaring like the thunder, tigers have long been feared and respected as a king of the animal world. But last week a report said that there are no more than 30 wild tigers left in South China.

This was the conclusion of a team of scientists from China’s State Forestry Administration and the World Nature Fund.

The South China tiger, also known as the Chinese tiger, is native to southern China. In the 1950’s,there were over 4,000 tigers found in mountain forests in the country. But due to the destruction of their natural habitat and uncontrolled hunting, it has been pushed on to the list of the world’s top ten most endangered species.

Sixty-six of the big cats can be found in the cages of a dozen zoos around China. But they are nothing like their wild cousins. They have lost their natural skills such as hunting and killing. If they were set free, they could not look after themselves.

“Breeding has damaged the quality of the species,” said Pei Enle, deputy director of the Shanghai Zoo.

To reintroduce the species into the wild, the country started a programmed to send five to ten young tigers to South Africa. Four of them have already arrived. Progress has been made as two elder tigers have recovered some of their instincts and can hunt wild animals by themselves at the African base.

“South Africans are very experienced in reintroducing big animals to the wild. The country has very good natural conditions for the tigers to learn in,” said Lu Jun, office director of the National Wildlife Research and Development Centre. “We tried in Fujian Province, but it was not successful as there was not a complete eco-chain and there was a lack of space.”