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Clare Flynn conducts a census count of gentoo penguins at Neko Harbour in Antarctica in January 2023.

By Daniel Dunaief

Humans may have nothing on penguins when it comes to viral marketing. Almost immediately after the Covid pandemic shut down tourism in parts of Antarctica, some gentoo penguins likely altered their choice of nesting sites.

Clare Flynn with her award- winning poster at the Pacific Seabird Group annual meeting in Feb. 2023. Photo by William Kennerly

As if the penguins got an avian email alert indicating that tourists eager to send a post card from the only post office in Antarctica weren’t coming, these flightless birds quickly divvied up desirable real estate, which, for a gentoo penguin, means bare rock on which they make nests out of pebbles.

“Antarctica is seen as a mostly pristine place where humans have very little impact,” said Clare Flynn, a PhD student in the lab of Heather Lynch, the Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences Endowed Chair for Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University.

Flynn used a combination of ground counts from researchers and drone footage to tally the nests during the Covid years. Based on these numbers, she concluded that tourism has been “depressing the population sizes at Port Lockroy” and nearby Jougla Point.

The study suggests that even limited human visits to remote locations can alter decisions by wildlife, affecting the kind of reproductive choices that could, over time and with greater numbers of people coming, affect population sizes.

Pomona College Biology Professor Nina Karnovsky, who is an undergraduate thesis advisor and mentor for Flynn but didn’t participate in this research, suggested that this kind of analysis highlights the need for greater awareness of human influence.

“It shows that people even visiting the colony can have impacts,” Karnovsky said. “Tourism is a double-edged sword. You want people to experience Antarctica and see how precious life there is.” At the same time, researchers don’t want any such visits to have negative side effects.

Nest numbers

The number of penguin nests in Port Lockroy surged to 978 in the 2021/ 2022 breeding season. That is considerably higher than the 535 nesting pairs in the 2018/2019 season, according to data compiled and analyzed by Flynn. What’s more, when the post office returned to normal operations, bringing back tourists in 2022 and 2023, the nest number at Port Lockroy returned to its earlier levels, at 529.

The overall number of nesting gentoo penguins didn’t change dramatically in a cluster of gentoo penguin colonies around Wiencke Island during Covid, as many of these birds likely shifted their breeding locations from nearby sites that don’t have as much human activity, such as Damoy Point.

“It’s shocking how quickly [the changed nesting sites] happened,” Flynn said, occurring over the course of two years, not generations. “Tourism is just ramping up when the penguins are choosing nesting sites.” The shifting nest sites accounted for most of the increase in Port Lockroy and Jougla Point. Some of the gentoo penguins who may have skipped a breeding season, however, also might have decided to give it a go amid the pandemic closure.

Post office attraction

Flynn and Lynch have a few theories about what caused these nesting patterns.

Flynn suggested the nesting sites at Damoy Point and Dorian Beacon, where the number of nesting colonies declined during the lockdown, may have been close to carrying capacity, which means that prospective penguin parents found the equivalent of No Vacancy signs when they searched for places to build their nest.

Sites near the post office were not at carrying capacity prior to the pandemic. From visual inspection of the drone images, these sites had available bare rock, which is a limiting factor for gentoo penguins.

Flynn believes that pedestrian traffic may have dissuaded penguins from creating nests.

Human disturbance

Boat traffic may also be dissuading gentoo penguins from nesting. While there is a limit to the number of people who can land at any given time, people often cruise around the area in zodiacs, which increases the noise and could create a physical barrier for swimming penguins.

Last month, Lynch brought Flynn’s analysis of nesting numbers during the pandemic to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Finland. Policy makers are considering implementing a no-wake zone in Port Lockroy harbor as a first step to reduce disturbance.

While the number of nests typically varies by year at these sites, the dramatic increases and decreases lie outside that normal range, Flynn said. She called the numbers “eye popping,” as Port Lockroy had the largest population size ever recorded in 2021/ 2022 and Jougla Point saw the largest population size in 2021/2022 in over 20 years. Damoy Point and Dorian Beacon, by contrast, had huge drops.

Understanding the effects of tourism is becoming increasingly important, particularly as the appetite for travel to this area increases.

While gentoo penguins are doing well overall, an increase in the kind of tourism that exists at Port Lockroy could affect their breeding success.

“We need to understand how increasing levels of tourism affect these species so that the effects in conjunction with climate change effects don’t cause a disaster” for several penguin species, Flynn added.

Rewarding pivot

Flynn hadn’t intended to study the effects of Covid on the gentoo penguin. Instead, she was using drone images to identify whether penguins nested in the same place from one year to the next.

While Flynn was annotating images from 2018 through 2021, Lynch noticed the changes at Port Lockroy during those years. After Flynn took a deeper dive into the numbers, she made a new poster just one week before presenting her results at the Pacific Seabird Group annual meeting in February.

The “exhausting” effort, as Flynn put it, paid off, as she won runner up honors for best PhD poster at the conference. She has since sent the results out to Biological Conservation for publication.

Ecology spark

Flynn grew up near Baltimore and attended Pomona College, where she anticipated exploring her interest in math. She switched her focus to ecology. An ecology and evolution class she took with Karnovsky cemented her decision and brought her into the world of seabirds.

Karnovsky recalled how Flynn “loved collecting data,” which, in Southern California is “not a walk in the park, literally.” Flynn had to contend with cactus and poison ivy on an owl project.

Karnovsky believes her former student could “go on and do great things in this field.”

At one point about five years ago, Karnovsky told Flynn she might “go to Antarctica one day to study penguins,” Flynn recalled. At the time, Flynn thought the idea sounded “crazy.”

Karnovsky’s suggestion about Flynn’s future was less crazy than it was prescient.

When she’s not following her research calling, Flynn enjoys following recipes. She makes baked goods and is particularly fond of a blueberry muffin recipe she found in Bon Appétit magazine. Instead of putting in too many blueberry, which sink in the muffin, she makes a blueberry compote and sprinkles lemon zest sugar on top.

As for her future, Flynn hasn’t decided on a post PhD plan. This could include becoming a professor or pursuing a data science career.

“I could see her becoming a really wonderful professor because she also sees mentoring as really important,” Karnovsky said.

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Several bird species use the shed skin of a snake during nest building to scare off predators, including the Carolina Wren as seen above. Photo by John Turner

By John L. Turner

John Turner

On one of many strolls to the compost bin this Spring, I walked past a tall Norway spruce and noticed the head of a Mourning Dove jutting above a few head-high horizontal branches. Suspecting it was an incubating bird on a nest, I didn’t disturb her, giving her and the long horizontal branch wide berth. Later in the day when the nest was temporarily unattended I moved in for a closer look.   

Two eggs sat together in a shallow bowl made of small branches, in a splayed out pattern reminding me a little of the pattern that happens during a game of pick-up sticks. This was not a tightly woven nest and even with the spruce branches supporting it I could see small holes through the nest and branches to the ground below.  I wondered if eggs or young ever fall through the doves’ nest although I suspect they don’t. 

Mourning Dove nests are known to be loosely constructed in which you typically see through the floor, a trait that makes them distinctive. Some other bird nests also are distinctive to species, the pendulous, highly interwoven nest of a Baltimore Oriole being an excellent example. Their nests, hanging from the end of maple branches, often become apparent after leaf fall in the autumn. Another distinctive nest is that of the American Robin, always containing mud in the outer shell that helps to keep the cup rigid and firm.     

Not surprisingly, many birds try to conceal their nests or make them less visible. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, for example, embellishes the outer sides of its tiny nest with lichens, making it appear to be little more than a lichen-encrusted bump on a branch. Ground nesting birds like Eastern Meadowlarks have nests with an entrance hole on the side making the nest invisible from above. The same is true for the Ovenbird, a warbler species which is a common nester in woodlands throughout Long Island and especially the Pine Barrens. Its ground nest also has an entrance from the side and looks like an old fashion dutch oven, hence the bird’s name.  

Bird nests come in many shapes and sizes, constructed with many materials, in many different physical locations, and are a perfect blend of form and function. The purpose is, of course, to provide a place where the eggs, hatchlings, and nestlings can be more safely protected and for many species to successfully complete their development. (Precocious young such as piping plover chicks leave the nest at birth never to return). 

Remarkably, a few birds like the Fairy Tern of the South Pacific make no nest at all; this species lays its one egg in a dimple or depression on a thicker branch. Somehow through the rigors of incubation and hatching the egg and chick defy gravity and stay safe. Closer to home we have the “nests” of Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will’s-widows which are nothing more than leaves on the ground upon which the adult lays her two lightly splotched eggs. 

Piping Plovers do a little more in nest construction by hollowing out a small depression with the male adorning the nest with white shell fragments. The nests of terns are similar, being nothing more than a shallow depression in the sand — simple but effective.    

The use of earthen burrows — horizontally oriented tunnels of varying lengths with an entrance hole excavated in a vertical surface — is another nesting strategy employed by some birds. On Long Island there are three burrow-nesting birds — the Belted Kingfisher and two swallow species — Bank and Northern Rough-winged. They excavate the tunnel (sloping it slightly upward to keep the rain out) which can be as long as five feet ending in a slightly enlarged chamber where the eggs are incubated. All are dug into a vertical face such as a steep slope, road or railroad cut,  bank of a sandpit or in a bluff face. The bluffs along Long Island’s north shore are often used, especially by Bank Swallows. If you walk along a north shore beach flanked by a bluff you might see many small nest holes in the bluff, with handsome brown and white birds with a distinct upper chest band zooming about — you’ve entered a Bank Swallow colony.    

Cavities comprise another important nesting strategy employed by birds. Usually the result of work by woodpeckers such as Red-bellied, Hairy, and Downy Woodpeckers, (but not always as I once watched a pair of Black-capped Chickadees excavate a nesting cavity in a rotted grey birch stump), these created cavities are vital to the many bird species that utilize or require cavities in which to nest. These species include the familiar aforementioned Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatch, Great-crested Flycatcher and Screech Owl, not to mention many woodpecker species and numerous insect and mammal species too.   

The overwhelming number of birds including most songbirds make nests having two to three distinct layers — coarser sticks in the outer frame, finer twigs and roots in the inner cup, which is lined with soft material such as moss, animal hair, and feathers. This provides necessary rigor while providing a softer surface for the eggs and young. 

Birds put some quirky stuff in their nests. Ospreys are notorious for placing all manner of junk in their large nests — pack rats with wings!  According to Alan Poole’s fine book “Ospreys: The Revival of a Global Raptor,” materials found in this species’ nests include pieces of fishing nets, plastic buoys, six-pack holders, party balloons and their dangerous ribbons; basically nest materials “can be a bizarre reflection of what is available in the local landscape.” Carolina Wrens and Great Crested Flycatchers are known to reliably include a strange material in their nests — pieces of or entire snakeskins. Speaking of Carolina Wrens, they’re known to nest in some pretty weird spots such as old shoes, flower pots, and pails. 

 As expected, larger birds make larger nests. The Bald Eagle has perhaps the most impressive nest of any North American bird species; some are large enough for a small child to nestle in the bowl of the stick-constructed nest. According to reports they can  weigh nearly a ton (I remember seeing one such massive nest in coastal Maryland several decades ago). Not surprisingly, their nests are typically constructed  in large trees with thick branches that can support the weight of the nest. Osprey nests are smaller but still can be impressive affairs, composed of interlocking sticks that stand up to the buffeting winds of the coast.    

A few birds, the Great Horned Owl being a classic example, rarely make their own nest, rather using the nest site of a previous occupant such as another bird of prey or crow. 

Almost as diverse as the birds themselves, the nests birds construct illustrate many different designs and a wide variety of forms — all variations to achieve the same purpose — a place where bird eggs and babies can be protected at a most vulnerable time in their lives.  There’s avian architecture on display all around us!

A resident of Setauket, author John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.

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When you read the label look for words such as bird friendly, fair trade, certified organic, etc.
A Column Promoting a More Earth-Friendly Lifestyle

By John L. Turner

John Turner

If you watch birds you’ve undoubtedly enjoyed watching them in the early morning while having a cup of coffee. Want to enjoy the latter while better helping the species you enjoy viewing? Drink shade-grown coffee. 

As the name suggests, shade-grown coffee is composed of coffee shrubs and trees grown in the understory of a shady tropical rainforest in which the ecosystem remains largely intact. Unfortunately most coffee consumed by Americans are sun-grown varieties where the rainforest is destroyed and manicured rows of coffee plants grow. Sun grown coffee farms have many fewer wildlife species, such as the birds we love — Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet Tanagers, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks to name but a few; in some cases sun-grown coffee farms have 5% of the species found in shade grown farms. 

Shade grown coffee brands are available in some stores and certainly on-line. They are a  bit more expensive but if more consumers buy coffee sustainably grown, prices should come down. And you will gain something more than you ever could by consuming a cheaper cup of sun-grown coffee — knowing you’re helping migratory birds that visit us during the Spring and Summer survive.

A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.

 

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An assistance dog leads a man who is blind. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
By Emma Gutmann

For 77 years, the Guide Dog Foundation, at 371 Jericho Turnpike in Smithtown, has used small classes, individualized instruction and generosity to turn the $50,000 expense of breeding, raising, training and placing an assistance dog into a purely joyful human right for those who are blind or experience low vision or other disabilities. 

At no cost to the individual, the GDF provides a welcoming, reputable community and matches each student with the perfect canine companion. Volunteering is the gear that keeps the operation going. 

In a phone interview, Puppy Program Manager Lorin Bruzzese said that while every helping hand is valuable, puppy raisers are the heart of the operation. Raisers are responsible for housing, training and caring for a foundation puppy from eight weeks to 16 months old. While the pups may be hard to let go, Bruzzese considered puppy raising a gratifying and enriching opportunity.

“You know you’re involved in a beautiful dog’s life and their upbringing, but it’s not really letting go,” Bruzzese said. “It’s gaining so much when you’re able to see how they impact somebody really special.”

Variations of the puppy raiser role include breeder caretakers, who care for adult breeder dogs in between sessions, and litter hosts, who take in a litter of future guide puppies and their mother for six weeks.

For shorter-term commitments, one might become a puppy camper, taking pups for two to three weeks at a time when extra help is needed. Similarly, temporary home volunteers open their fenced-in, dog-safe homes to a puppy or adult dog for an agreed-upon timeframe.

There are also plenty of opportunities for those allergic to dogs, partial to cats or otherwise unable to host. Non-canine-related volunteering on the Smithtown campus consists of serving meals to students or clerical work.

Young volunteers looking for community service might arrange a toy drive or puppy shower with the help of accessible resources like GDF’s Amazon Wish List. They can also distribute flyers looking for puppy raisers around their neighborhoods to assist with outreach.

The volunteer services team continues to invent new and modify existing roles to meet the foundation’s needs. The Taxi Team has been expanded as the organization searches for volunteers willing to travel long distances to transport dogs, clients and volunteers along the East Coast. With the vehicle and travel expenses provided, the Taxi Team is only asked to donate their time.

For the community’s continued efforts, the GDF hosted an appreciation event on Saturday, June 10. 

“At Volunteer Recognition Day, we provide interaction with our staff, different events and ways to make keepsakes,” Bruzzese said. “We have the acknowledgment of each person’s role. They add ribbons to their name tags with all of the different ways that they’ve been involved in supporting our program. We also held a graduation ceremony for some of our guide dog clients.”

In an email, Allison Storck, director of marketing and public relations at GDF, said people of any age or skill set could find a volunteer role that suits them.

“The first step is to apply online on our website,” Storck said. “There is a web page with all the current opportunities listed, and by clicking on a button for the volunteer position, it will bring you to the appropriate application.”

She added, “Every volunteer attends an Introduction to Volunteering class and then the appropriate training class for the position.”

Even a simple donation through the foundation’s website will help improve the lives of puppies and their companions. The Allen E. & Patricia M. Murray Foundation will match all gifts up to $34,000 made on July 13 for Giving Bark Thursday.

To begin your journey, visit www.guidedog.org.

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Poor air quality can be dangerous for pets too. Pixabay photo

By Matthew Kearns, DVM

Dr. Matthew Kearns

The Canadian Forest fires are still burning and there are recommendations to stay inside. The good news is that the smoke associated with forest fires do not contain harmful gases and compounds in high concentrations as compared to a housefire. This does not mean that the smoke is not harmful, just less harmful. How does smoke and poor air quality affect our pets? Let’s use this article to explore this.

Fine particulates associated with forest fires can damage the airway starting at the larynx (voicebox) all the way down to the lungs. These particles (especially if they contained chemicals like plastics, etc) can cause inflammation that will decrease clearance, cause tissue sloughing, promote small clot formation, and lead to edema. Edema is a diffuse accumulation of fluid within the tissue itself. This edema can narrow the diameter of trachea, or windpipe, as well as cause fluid to settle in the lung tissue itself. 

A secondary complication to this tissue damage and edema is the risk of secondary infections. Bacteria will take advantage of this temporary breakdown in the immune system and cause bacterial bronchitis and pneumonia.

 The first gas to consider in any fire is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is in higher concentration in any fire. Carbon monoxide is such a dangerous compound because it competes with oxygen to bind with hemoglobin on red blood cells. As a matter of fact, hemoglobin has an affinity of 200-300 times more for carbon monoxide than oxygen. This means red blood cells can carry less oxygen and, when red blood cells can carry less oxygen, less oxygen gets to vital tissues. At the cellular level low oxygen levels leads to cell death and the release of all sorts of cytokines, or inflammatory chemicals. This leads to more cell death and entire organ systems shut down. This happens very, very quickly.

The treatment of choice with any airway injury secondary to smoke inhalation is to move our pets out of contact with the smoke. If breathing is labored then oxygen is either just as important, or a close second. Other treatments are what are called symptomatic, or based on symptoms if they present themselves. If there is coughing, cough suppressants are used. If there is wheezing, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics are used.

Once again, the good news is the poor air quality secondary to these fires presents less dangerous symptoms. However, try to keep your pets inside during these poor air quality days and bring your pet immediately to your veterinarian if any symptoms of respiratory distress occur.

Dr. Kearns practices veterinary medicine from his Port Jefferson office and is pictured with his son Matthew and his dog Jasmine. 

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Mia

This week’s shelter pet is Mia, a four-year-old pit bull mix who came to the Smithtown Animal Shelter in 2020 after she was hit by a car (minor fractures in her no foot and some scrapes). Despite being scared and injured, she started bonding with the staff immediately.

Mia is a volunteer favorite as she is equal parts goofball and cuddle buddy. She can entertain herself for hours with any toy, loves going for walks and enjoys being snuggled on the couch. Mia does wish to be your only pet and she has “stranger danger”, meaning she needs proper introductions to new people. Once she has gotten to know someone, they are her friend for life.

If you would like to meet this sweetheart, please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with her in a domestic setting.

The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Visitor hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). For more information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.

 

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Pop Up Saturdays in Stony Brook. Photo from WMHO

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) has announced the return of Pop-Up Saturdays in Stony Brook Village. This seven-part series family-friendly event will take place on Saturdays July 8 to August 19 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is filled with animals, music, art and even magic!

Pop-Up Saturdays are free to the public and will take place in Stony Brook Village’s Inner Court (by Crazy Beans and/or the Waterfall Garden). 2023 Pop-Up Saturdays Lineup includes Uncle Tony’s Reptile Shack: an interactive, fun and educational presentation where the public will meet snakes, lizards, tortoises, and more on July 8;  live R&B, Roots, Blues and Contemporary Acoustic music from Brenda & Burke, as well as Caricatures by Marty on July 15; Magic of Amore and Last Chance Animal Rescue on July 22; July 29 attraction TBA;  Radical Reptile Entertainment: a fun and educational interaction with reptiles on Aug. 5; the Silly Magician and Caricatures by Marty on Aug. 12; and Brenda & Burke will close the series on Aug. 19.

The 2023 Pop-Up Saturday are generously sponsored by Armor Pest Control and Dr. Rocco Morelli, DDS. For. more information, call 631-751-2244 or visit www.wmho.org.

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Goat yoga participant Phoebe Barnett with a baby goat on her back. Photo by Colleen Kelly

By Melissa Arnold

Picture this: It’s a balmy summer evening, and you’ve gotten the chance to take a yoga  class on the sprawling grounds of the Smithtown Historical Society. The lush grass springs back under your bare feet as you roll out your mat. The wind blows gently through the trees. As you move from pose to pose, surrounded by nature and gorgeous historic buildings, serenity wraps around you like a blanket.

And then, a baby goat nuzzles against your backside, attempting to climb you like a mountain during Downward Dog.

Scenes like this one play out all summer long at the historical society, which has hosted wildly popular goat yoga classes for the past several years. It’s one of many ways executive director Priya Kapoor is inviting the community to come and explore.

“When I first got here, I fell in love with the community and the property. I’m always thinking about what else we can do and create to make this place as welcoming as it can be,” said Kapoor. “We have a beautiful 22-acre property and we want to be able to showcase this gem that’s in their own backyard.”

Goat yoga originated on a farm in Oregon less than a decade ago and the trend caught on quickly nationwide, largely thanks to social media. When the Smithtown program launched in 2017, the first class had a wait list of more than 700 people.

It’s a joy for Karen Haleiko, owner of Steppin’ Out Ponies and Petting Zoo, to watch her animals interact with people of all ages. The traveling pony ride and petting zoo company focuses on both education and entertainment, as well as animal rescue efforts — they’ve done more than 500 animal rescues in the last eight years.

About 15 goats come to each yoga class. Haleiko said the goats decide for themselves each time if they want to go for a ride.

“My goats are very social, they crave people and genuinely enjoy being a part of this experience,” Haleiko said. “Goats have a calming aura … It’s common to include goats as companions with race horses in between races. They’re also very comical, and being with them makes you laugh, helps you relax and forget about the worries of the world for a while.”

Each 45-minute yoga class is led by Haleiko’s aunt, Doreen Buckman, who’s taught yoga for the last 20 years. Buckman said she admired the strength, flexibility and overall vitality of female yogis in India, where the ancient practice began.

“The environment at the [goat yoga] classes is warm and welcoming. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never done yoga before or if you can’t do the poses exactly,” she said. “No one is judging anyone else. We want people to have fun and do what feels most comfortable for them, whether that’s an advanced headstand or spending the time sitting quietly and taking deep breaths.”

The goats are allowed to roam freely and interact with students throughout the session. Bigger goats might cuddle up next to you and let you lean on them for balance, while more spunky goats might bounce around you, climb on you or frolic together. 

This summer’s classes include some animal newcomers, including five baby goats — triplets Punky Brewster, Finn, and Evie; twins Captain America and Loki — as well as an alpaca named Mazie. Once yoga is finished, there’s time to mingle and pet the animals, take pictures and explore the grounds. Keep an eye out for the sheep and chickens that live on the property, too.

Buckman said that many goat yoga attendees are repeat visitors, and she’s not surprised. “One of the things I hear most often is, ‘I really needed this,’” she said. “I call goat yoga a laugh fest — it’s a hilarious time, and laughter really is the best medicine.”

Outdoor yoga will be held throughout the summer at 5:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. in the field behind the Frank Brush Barn at the Smithtown Historical Society, 211 Middle Country Road. Upcoming sessions include July 7, July 21, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Sept. 7. Tickets are $30 per person and pre-registration is required at www.eventbrite.com. Children ages 7 through 17 are welcome accompanied by an adult. Please bring a mat, towel and water bottle. Yoga mats will not be provided. For more information, call 631-265-6768.

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Chevy. Photos from Smithtown Animal Shelter

MEET CHEVY!

This week’s featured shelter pet is Chevy, a two year-old male Pit Mix who had a very difficult start to his young life. It’s hard to imagine that this happy pup was once found on the side of the road, broken and beaten this past New Year’s Eve. Thanks to the kind hearted nature of law enforcement at the Suffolk County Police Department, a truly devoted team at Animal Surgical Center, one saintly foster family, and the selfless team at the Smithtown Animal Shelter, Chevy is thriving, back to good health, and awaiting his furrever home. Since his recovery, Chevy has become quite a celebrity, making appearances in viral TikToks, and getting profiled by News 12 and Newsday. Chevy loves to listen to music, especially Andrea Bocelli, earning him the nickname Bocelli, or Bo for short.

Chevy is finally getting to experience the happy puppy life that he never had before. He has gained back weight, is strong and mobile despite still having a slight limp, and loves to snuggle and kiss. Even though he was mistreated by humans before, he is still very trusting and friendly to all new people. He gets along with some dogs and has lived in a multi-pet home for the period of his recovery. Chevy is the perfect example of the ultimate comeback story, and he won’t let anything get him down.

Chevy will only be adopted into the best of homes who will provide him with the love and care he was missing in his past life. Due to his limited vision, he should only be with older kids that will respect his sight trouble. He also has a well-managed food allergy. He needs a family that is fully committed to the promise that Chevy will never know another bad day again. Chevy can’t wait to find his perfect furrever home, and we know that home is out there somewhere for him.

If you would like to meet this sweetheart, please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with him in a domestic setting.

The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Visitor hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). For more information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.

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Photo by Julianne Mosher
Photo by Julianne Mosher

Julianne Mosher captured these scenes at the 2023 Seaside Hunter Derby at Old Field Farm in Setauket on June 18. The event was held in conjunction with Gallery North’s 19th annual Wet Paint Festival, giving over 40 artists much inspiration for their plein air painting.

Send your Photo of the Week to [email protected]

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