Posts by erikscalavino

BUDAPEST – When I first visited Noé Állatotthon Alapítvány (Hungarian for Noah’s Ark Animal Shelter) on the outskirts of Budapest in June 2014, I was pleasantly surprised and a bit awestruck by the sheer numbers and varieties of animals whom the small staff care for on their few acres of land. It is a monumental…

Saqqara, Egypt — May 2008 The first thing I noticed when our tour bus pulled into the parking area at Saqqara, on the outskirts of Cairo, was not the glut of tourists. It wasn’t the noxious odor of diesel fuel from the dozens of other busses crammed side-by-side, nor the choking clouds of sandy dust they kicked up.…

The tiny Chesapeake Bay retriever puppy was the rich color of a warm spice, so, we decided to give him its name: Nutmeg. He was my family’s first pet, and though we had no way of knowing when we brought him home for the first time, Nutmeg’s would be a short and difficult life. Nutmeg was…