For weeks, Eva Hachey had thought of adopting a dog. And there he was, at the local dog shelter. “The attendant picked him up and put him on my lap. He started giving me kisses. He stole my heart at that moment.” She adopted the ten-month-old puppy immediately and named him Bruno.

Bruno lived happily with Hachey and her daughter, Angel Hutchinson, for five months. Then, on the evening of September 26, 2018, Hachey, returned home as usual at 8 pm from her job. She ate supper in the living room. Around 10:30, a friend called, just as Bruno went into Hutchinson’s room to go to sleep where Hutchinson was ready to sleep. Hachey and her friend chatted a bit, and as Hachey hung up, she noticed the time was 11:08.

“The next thing I remembered was a male voice saying, Eva, Eva, wake up. It was a doctor,” Hachey says. “I looked around, and the room was just full of people. And I said, what are you doing in my house?”

What they were doing was saving her life. By the time Hachey hung up with her friend, Hutchinson was fast asleep in her bedroom and Bruno was next to her bed on the floor. Hachey believes he heard something strange and possibly went to the living room to investigate.

Anyway, Bruno began barking and jumping on and off the bed to wake Hutchinson. When that didn’t work, he attacked the fleshy skin between Hutchinson’s index finger and thumb. Finally, she leaped out of bed and went to see her mother, only to find Hachey slumped over in the chair who had stopped breathing. Hutchinson dialed 911 immediately. Hachey was diagnosed to have suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and she spent 15 days in hospital.

Now, a year and a half later, Hachey has fully recovered, although doctors had given her only a 5% chance of survival. Hachey believes that being found so quickly after the rupture is the only thing that saved her life.

Many kinds of birds migrate (迁徙) north in the spring and south in the fall, with most flying at night, looking for food and better conditions. But many birds die along the way. Some of these deaths are the result of human actions, such as hunting, or clearing huge areas of land that used to be used by migrating birds. Most importantly, experts say that as many as one billion birds may die every year in the US alone as a result of flying into buildings. Other tall structures, such as power lines and cell towers also lead to many bird deaths.

Now people in Philadelphia are working to remove at least one of the ways that migrating birds die. Birds can get disoriented by the lights and glass of buildings along their migration paths, causing them to strike buildings or windows. Buildings are a special challenge for migrating birds. The windows can reflect things like the sky or tree branches, causing birds to fly directly into the glass. Many birds migrate at night. Bright city lights add another layer of difficulty, confusing birds that might normally be guided by the stars.

Now the city has begun a program called Lights Out Philly, which requires building owners and people who live in the area to turn off all outside lights that aren’t needed between midnight and 6 in the morning. So far, the majority of the public have been taking part, including the city’s best-known and tallest buildings: One and Two Liberty Place, the Comcast towers, and the BNY Mellon Center. “We want to be part of the program in preserving the bird population,” they said.

Twice a year (from April 1 to May 31, and from August 15 to November 15), the lights on many of the city’s buildings are turned off.

Cats communicate a variety of messages using cat body language. Examples include arching (弓起) their backs as a signal of fear or attack, and slowly blinking (眨) their eyes to signal relaxation. Mouth open and no teeth showed suggests a feeling of playfulness. A cat which chooses to lie on its back shows happiness, trust and comfort. Cats show dissatisfaction by moving their ears back, equal to a human frown.

As is the case with dogs, a twitching (抽动) tail can mean a little anger while a tail held high suggests confidence. Cats will twitch their tails when hunting or angry, while larger twitching suggests displeasure. They may also twitch their tails when playing. A tail held high is a sign of happiness, or can be used as a greeting towards humans or other cats (usually close relatives) while half-raised shows less pleasure, and unhappiness is expressed with a tail held low.

Some characteristic signals, however, are often misunderstood. It is important to keep in mind that each cat may show its feelings with different body language. For instance, a cat rubbing its body along an arm or leg of its owner is not only a way in which to attract attention and, perhaps, a way to ask for food; it is also a way of “marking” its owner as its own. Usually a cat with its tail held high and twitching shows excitement, but this is often mistaken for anger.

Many people fail or are too slow to understand the silent body language of cats. And they may have the false impression that cats are cold-hearted, unfaithful or not clever. To understand cats, people must observe a cat closely and learn what its body signals tell them.