By Jenny Ward Angyal
Gibsonville, North Carolina, USA
Dark-eyed and playful, childlike but childless, Elizabeth Ann needs an emergency hysterectomy or she will die. Her lithe young body recovers quickly from the surgery.
It’s hard to know if she grieves—but her caregivers do.
Elizabeth Ann is a Black-footed Ferret, cloned from the frozen tissues of a Ferret named Willa, who died more than 30 years ago. The few hundred Ferrets living wild today are all descendants of just seven taken from a Wyoming ranch in a desperate attempt to save them from extinction. They’re inbred and threatened by disease. Ferrets eat almost nothing but Prairie Dogs—an essential keystone species that farmers, ranchers and developers continue to shoot, poison and bulldoze as fast as they can.
beyond
the horizon of dreams . . .
uncaged prairie
shaped by Wishtonwish
fat in his burrow
Ferret and Fox,
Golden Eagle and Hawk,
Badger and Burrowing Owl . . .
a tapestry of root and wing
binding earth and sky
Elizabeth Ann can no longer pass on her healthy genes. Her caregivers pin their hopes on future Ferret clones—but can you clone a prairie?
the grass bows down
and the grass rises
revealing
one Small White Lady’s Slipper
blooming against all odds
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