Sit back in your favorite chair and embark upon a journey with me, a journey that will take us from the Pecos to the Colorado, and beyond; from the depths of Death Valley to the towering peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental; from Big Bend to Baja. For this is my story, a story of travel and adventure; whether it be witnessing the incredible bravery of a mother hawk defending her nest in a fight to the finish against a hungry Great-horned owl, an encounter with an enraged female Black bear defending her cubs against the indiscretions of a human intruder or, perhaps, listening to the melodious call of a red-winged blackbird defiantly proclaiming its territorial legacy. We will encounter many marvelous creatures along the way: a snake that "walks" across the hot desert sands, another so deadly that its venom is reported to kill a human in twenty minutes, a lizard that "barks" like a dog and another that actually runs a fever when it is ill. And, finally, a species of lizard in which there are no males, only females. These creatures and many more will be met within these pages, and hopefully they will become your friends as they have become mine.