I have lived in Minesota all nearly all of my life; if that isn't the polar regions, I don't know what is!

My sister has lived in Finland for the last 35 years-another polar region!

We have both been animal lovers our whole lives. when we were kids, though poor, we always had a menagerie. Horses (that my grandpa paid for), a goat, dogs, cats, rabbits, a duck, hamsters, birds and the occasional baby turkey in the bathtub because my sister worked at a turkey farm.

No one loves nature or animals more than I do. I watched my mother give the goat an enema and give a baby turkey that fell in the toilet artificial respiration (it lived!)

Neighbors would call at odd hours for someone to come and get the horse because it knew how to unlatch the gate and untether itself. A common sight in our neighborhood would be me or my sister riding bareback with only a bridle in the misty dawn, as we retrieved a wayward horse.

We can learn so much from the the animal kingdom if we'd only take the time to look (and care). Being poor never entered our minds; we were rich, richer than all the kids who had so much; for we had memories they could never even comprehend the significance of.

We were one with nature and the creatures that share it with us, creatures that make our existance worthwhile by their very presence.

We were blessed.