Thanksgiving, of course, is this week (for Americans, at any rate), and with it come a certain series of traditions. Most of them are culinary - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. There are also those ridiculous pageants put on by elementary school children dressed up as pilgrims and Indians (with their construction paper feathers sticking up in the back). And, of course, there are sales and shopping sprees as Christmas creeps earlier and earlier each year.
The one Thanksgiving tradition that I never cared for was the whole everyone-go-around-the-table and say what you are thankful for routine. My family never did it growing up, but I've been forced to participate in it at other situations. Never liked it - partially because it always seemed too sappy, partially because it just seemed to encourage braggarts ("This year, I'm thankful that I just got a new job which pays more than any three of you put together...). You could see how stuff like that could get annoying, right?
So anyway, to try and put a positive spin on that for this Thanksgiving, I thought I'd do a "From the News" that we could all be thankful about. Often, these items are bad news, such as the recent red wolf tragedy. Other times, they are about good news of a small scale, such as a birth at one zoo or another. Today's item is great news: it celebrates a new milestone in the struggle to restore one of the most endangered mammals in the world, one that was long thought to be extinct.
For Thanksgiving this year, I am thankful that we still share the world with animals like the black-footed ferret. I'm thankful that there are people who are willing to work hard and selflessly to save a species from extinction for no reason other than it exists and needs help. And I'm thankful that I get to work in a profession that helps make miracles like this possible.
Happy Thanksgiving! Good luck to those of you working Thursday!
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