For four months, puppy Indiana miraculously survived in the woods with a shattered shoulder. She was taken for a wolf and shot while running wild with her mother, Dakota. As a result of the gunshot, Indiana lost not only her leg but also her mother, as the two were sent to different adoption groups. While Indiana was learning to walk on three legs down south, Dakota was 1,000 miles north in New England.

Dakota found her forever home with me on Long Island. I have experience with Nordic breeds, and Dakota, a husky-malamute mix, just needed attention and someone who understood how to approach her. When I first read Dakota’s Petfinder bio, it mentioned that the puppy she’d been running with was shot, and, I assumed, killed. I’m a broadcast news journalist, so I did some research and came across a story from a South Carolina TV news outlet about a puppy that recently had her front leg cut off because of an old gunshot wound. There was no mistaking it—she was a spitting image of Dakota. Her puppy wasn’t killed by the gunshot, just badly injured. I vowed to bring the three-legged puppy home. As I learned throughout my journey to reunite mother and pup, they both needed each other. Back home, Dakota would let out these downright mournful howls on the deck, as if she was calling for her puppy to come back. And potential adopters for Indiana were required to have a six-foot fence because she kept jumping the one at her rescue in South Carolina.

When I finally adopted Indiana, the reunion was magical. Dakota was ecstatic. She couldn’t stop licking her puppy’s face. The love between them is as heartwarming as their story is heartbreaking. Dakota has since stopped her mournful howls. Indiana has never tried to jump my fence. These once-feral dogs now jump onto my bed, lie on the sofa with me, curl up in my lap, and lick me constantly. In spite of their having lived in the wild, the dogs have no aggression whatsoever. I am constantly amazed by how sweet and gentle they are.

Of all the creatures on the planet, the narwhal (独角鲸) is one of the strangest looking. It’s a whale which has a long tooth coming out of its head; that’s how it got its nickname, the unicorn (独角兽) of the sea. They live in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Canada, Russia and East Greenland. However, experts say some populations of narwhal could be extinct by 2025, and it’s all because of noise pollution.

Narwhals rely on echolocation (回声定位), which they use to find food and confirm their surroundings. The animal produces a sound wave which springs from an object. They pick this reflected sound up through their lower jaw, and information on features like size and speed passes to their ears.

However, increase in human activity in the sea, as well as climate change, has resulted in the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier, which means it’s more difficult for narwhals to rely on sound. Susanna Blackwell, who studies the effects of underwater noise on sea animals, told the BBC that there is noisier activity in the Arctic Ocean than ever because, as sea ice melts, new routes are opening. And while icebergs breaking have been part of the ocean sound for hundreds of years, man-made noise is much harder for animals to adapt to, particularly as these changes are so sudden.

Research in 2023 recorded the reactions of narwhals to the imitated noises made by a guard ship. The scientists marked and tracked the creatures and found that, on hearing these sounds, they ended deep dives and stopped clicking, the echolocation signal they use for finding food underwater. This is the same reaction that narwhals have to orcas (虎鲸), who hunt them, meaning human-made noise could touch the creature’s ‘threat button’.

So, what can we do? Charlotte Findlay, a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University, says “noise is actually quite easy to solve. We need to either turn it off or turn it down.”

In the city I live in, we have a small local national park full of trees. I like that place very much, although I do wish it was bigger.

One day, I was walking around in the park along a path (小路) when I saw a beautiful squirrel (松鼠) lying in the middle of the path. I stopped and found that there was something wrong with one of its legs.

Just at that time, a man with two little kids was behind me. They were my neighbors. They were going up the same path. I said hello to them. The dad asked me, “Why are you standing still here?” I said,“Look! Here is a beautiful squirrel, but....” Noticing the squirrel, one of the kids shouted, “Quickly dad, catch it for me. I want to put it in my birdcage.” His brother nodded, asking their dad to catch the squirrel.

Then I stopped them.“Please wait. Do you really want to catch it and put it into the birdcage?” My neighbor said, “Yes. I will catch it and take it home.” I said angrily, “Animals are our friends and this is the last place in our city that the squirrel can live in. We must protect them. If we are kind to this tiny animal then we can start to be kind to bigger ones.” My neighbor smiled and said,“You misunderstood me. I will take it home and cure (治疗) it and when it is well, I will take it back to the park and set it free. Do you come long with me?”After hearing his words, I became happy. I followed him with the injured squirrel to his home. A few days later, when the squirrel was well, we took it back to the park and sent it free.

I felt glad that we did a good thing. We should protect animals.