PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Watching our little avian neighbors enjoy the backyard birdbath and feeder is one of life’s quiet pleasures. But when night falls, they too need a place to sleep.

Designers and craftsmen have turned their creative talents to the task; some of the results might make you wish you could downsize yourself and grow some wings.

First, some general tips about choosing and installing birdhouses:

To deter birds’ natural predators — hawks, squirrels, cats and even other birds — BirdFeeders Direct, based in Guelph, Ontario, suggests placing the house in an open space away from underbrush or hedges. Consider customizing if necessary with a flap, or making holes and perches too small for unwanted birds.

Birds can be fussy about where they’ll live. The male house wren builds several nests; he gives his new mate a tour and she chooses her favorite. North American birds don’t nest near others of their species; purple martins are the exception.

Gene Planker of Wild Bird Watching offers a number of classic cedar houses, including a nesting shelf for robins and doves. He cautions against buying large, multi-room houses unless they’re specifically designed for purple martins.

“They’re fine as pieces of art, but not practical for birds,” he said. “They may attract house sparrows, which we try to discourage, as they harm many of our native species.” Fiercely aggressive, sparrows will destroy songbird eggs and kill adults.

Robins, mourning doves and barn swallows prefer a nest shelf to an enclosed house — basically a birdhouse without a front. Nuthatches, chickadees, bluebirds and flickers like a cavity to nest in. Having several different shelters around your yard will ensure a variety of birds have a place to nest, roost and take shelter from the weather.

Keep the house, as well as feeders and baths, away from windows. Window strikes are a major cause of death for backyard birds, as the large reflective surface looks just like more of the garden to them. If your space is tight, then at least affix deterring decals — solid, colorful ones, or images of birds of prey or spider webs. Alternatively, draw the blinds or tint the glass.

When buying or building a birdhouse, check for any sharp edges or materials that could cause injury. Make sure there’s room in the house for the type of bird you’ll be attracting to build a nest and raise eggs. Never paint the interior or buy one that’s been painted inside. Birds won’t use it, and the paint toxins released in summer will be dangerous.

Mount the house on a post or pole with a squirrel baffle if necessary, or from a tree limb, in a fairly sunny location. Avoid dense shade or intense sun. Make sure you clean it out thoroughly each year — experts recommend doing so in late fall or early winter.

For design-conscious bird lovers, Areaware has Kelly Lamb’s Buckminster Fuller-inspired ceramic geodesic dome house, perfect for swallows and warblers. Jan Habraken’s red roost is perched on a shovel handle; each time birds land on the house, the shovel wiggles — ostensibly stirring up worms and seeds.

BestNest.com sells a clever one that converts from summer nesting home to winter roost with the adjustment of a few sliding panels. The web retailer’s houses have thoughtful features like predator entrance guards and ventilating gaps.

Homegoods’ brightly painted birdhouses with little porches are inexpensive and charming.

Fabulousbirdhouses.com offers imaginative lighthouse, beach shack and fishing lodge designs.

If whimsy’s your thing, consider Denver-based Crooked Creations’ wonky yet wonderful birdhouse. Designed by Chad Blecha and built by Al Mowrer, the large Hobbit-y house even has indoor lighting.

And if budget’s really no object, look up Wilmington, Del., artisan Thomas Burke. While he does call them birdhouses, his structures are more like grown-up playhouses. The large, historically accurate homes can be clapboard, brick or stone, with downspouts and other details.

Burke takes custom commissions. One sold for $9,000, stood 8 feet tall and weighed 300 pounds. He recently built several birdhouses inspired by homes in Andrew Wyeth paintings. Perfect for art collectors, perhaps. But your backyard finch will no doubt feel perfectly at home in a modest little box.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knoxville veterinarian trying to save an injured dog was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Police spokesman Darrell DeBusk told The Knoxville News Sentinel an officer was working traffic in North Knoxville on Thursday night when he heard a vehicle strike a dog that had escaped from a nearby home.

The officer was checking the lab mix when 37-year-old Kathyrn Denise Geiger Gilpatrick came out of her home to help. DeBusk said the veterinarian was struck by a hit-and-run driver as the officer was moving his cruiser to block traffic. She died of her injuries on Friday morning at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Police are looking for the driver of an Isuzu Amigo with damage to the front left corner.

The owner of the dog Gilpatrick was trying to save said it has undergone surgery and will live.

Coyotes live in densely populated cities all over the nation, even in that ultimate of urban areas – New York. On March 26, a young coyote was captured by city police officers after leading them on a two-day chase.

News reports noted that coyotes are “firmly established” in New York.

Likewise in Little Rock and not just because the city’s growth is taking over their habitat, says Tracy Roark, director of Little Rock Animal Services Division.

“Most animals will not reproduce past their food source,” he says. “They have a big food source in the city and their numbers are growing. That’s why it’s important that we dry uptheir food source.” Gary McKim of D&G Varmint Control agrees.

“They have a huge food supply and no predators – people feeding their dogs and cats outdoors, not to mention trash and garbage.

There are no predators except for cars.”

McKim and Roark say they don’t doubt that city coyotes supplement their diet with small pets. To keep the animals safe, pet owners shouldn’t let them roam and shouldn’t leave pets outside unattended.

They also advise homeowners to not feed pets outdoors, and keep trash and garbage in secure containers.

Another tack to reduce coyotes’ habitat involves keeping brush cleared away, says Rick Chastain of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“Clean up things that make bedding areas, thickets and grown-up areas, to make it less attractive tocoyotes.”

Motion sensor lighting and noisemakers could be deterrents, but only temporarily, Chastain says. The coyotes “get used to them and it’s not effective anymore. [Only] things that surprise them and catch them off guard will run them off.”

ROBINSON, Texas — As the area’s only licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Jane Thomas cares each year for 600 to 800 battered, bloodied and needy animals that otherwise wouldn’t have a prayer.

Hawks that slam into 18-wheelers. Deer tangled in shredders. Pelicans shot by children given a gun for Christmas.

For the past 32 years, the 54-year-old Thomas has spent her days wrapping broken limbs, cleaning foul-smelling cages and chopping up meat and vegetables to feed a variety of animals — from bobcats and deer to baby rabbits and roadrunners.

She says she saves about 85 percent of the wildlife. Although she’s the go-to person for animal shelters in McLennan County and its surrounding counties, Thomas does not get paid.

“I always say I don’t want to do it anymore,” said Thomas, who lives in Robinson with her husband, Dennis. “But who else is going to do it?

“I get people all the time who come to me and say, ‘Oh, I just love animals’. Then, I tell them to clean one of the crates, and I never see them again.”

Karen Froehlich, director of the Waco Humane Society, said good Samaritans consistently bring wildlife to her organization at 2032 Circle Road.

“Oh, gosh, you name it, and they bring it in,” Froehlich said. “Wild rabbits, squirrels, cranes, bobcats. A lot of birds. Especially this time of year — people start mowing their lawns and mow over all sorts of critters.”

When a woman in Limestone County on Monday found an injured great horned owl in her driveway, she called the county’s game warden, who brought the bird to the society’s animal shelter.

The owl sat in the group’s conference room until Dennis Thomas picked it up and brought it home.

Wearing a pair of elbow-high gloves, Jane Thomas cradled the bird in her arms and examined his swollen and wounded talon.

In a shelter next to her house, permeated with pungent odors and deafening screeches of about a dozen birds of various species, Thomas cared for the owl with peroxide and a smiley-face bandage wrap.

She then placed it in one of her dozens of cages.

“Does that hurt, baby?” she said to the bird as she put it in an empty cage.

A self-proclaimed tomboy, Thomas downplays her volunteer work with animals. She shrugged her shoulders when asked why she has given so much of her life to wildlife.

Thomas grew up in rural Ohio as the youngest of five children. She said her family was so poor, she had no shoes. Her mother made her save her only pair for church.

Because the nearest children her age were miles away and her brothers and sisters were older, she befriended critters in her backyard.

Every time she would bring them home, her parents would yell at her.

With anger in her voice, she would say to her mother: “You wait. One day, I’m going to have every animal you can imagine. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

After dropping out of school and marrying at age 15, she completed her General Equivalency Diploma.

She and her two children moved 10 years later to Waco, where she married again and continued to take in injured wildlife.

Now a grandmother, Thomas worked at Target for a while and held various waitressing positions. But she felt most comfortable around animals.

Thomas was long dubbed “The Bird Lady of Live Oak” when she lived in Waco near the old Hillcrest Hospital.

“At one point. I had 250 to 300 birds,” she said. “Birds intrigue me because they look so soft and beautiful, but you can’t touch them.”

She is a licensed as a wildlife rehabilitator by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Thomas said she learned how to care for, doctor and feed animals in need from studying hundreds of library books.

Her passion hasn’t come without pain. A red-tailed hawk she was caring for reached its talons into her abdomen and wouldn’t let go. She ran into her house with the bird still clinging to her waist. Her husband had to pry it from her bleeding stomach.

Thomas also has been infected twice with hepatitis from cleaning out raccoons’ cages, she said.

She has known heartache, too. Her favorite stray was a baby beaver that she and her daughter had named Teddy, “because he looked just like a teddy bear,” she said.

The Thomases kept it in a small stock tank in the backyard. She cleaned the water daily, which increased her water bill by $25 a month. But it was worth it. Teddy was family.

After two years, Thomas said she found Teddy one morning drowned in a bucket of feces.

“When I found him, I fell to the ground like he was my own son,” said Thomas, apologizing for and surprised by her sudden tears. “I was just in hysterics.”

She admits she lets herself get attached to each animal that is brought to her.

Thomas and her husband also take in men and women recovering from alcohol and drug abuse, she said.

“To some extent, we’re all healers,” she said. “Everyone could do this stuff. They just don’t want to.”

With such a high success rate, Thomas has become accustomed to returning animals back to the wild.

Asked how she knows when the wildlife is ready to leave her, she said: “You just know. They kind of tell you.”

HOUSTON — A judge in Houston has ordered 18 months in state jail for a man convicted over the 2008 killing of a tame deer known as Mr. Buck.

Brandon Eugene Gregory in August pleaded guilty to taking a wildlife resource without landowner consent in an incident involving the friendly deer in a sanctuary.

The remains of Mr. Buck were located on Nov. 25, 2008, at Bear Creek Pioneers Park.

A tip led to Gregory.

Defense attorney Connie Williams sought probation for Gregory.

The deer’s skull, which was displayed in court Thursday, was found in Gregory’s freezer.

LOS ANGELES — Saving a German shepherd stuck in the rising Los Angeles River was the right thing to do, the risks were slight, rescue crews were on standby, extra taxpayer money wasn’t used and the alternatives were unacceptable, authorities said Monday.

The helicopter and swift water rescue crew members that saved the dog on Friday have been hailed as heroes, feted on television and radio and congratulated on the Web and in print. But they have also been vilified by a few in blogs, on social networks and story comment sections.

“You’re not going to please everybody. There’s always 10 percent, they either don’t like animals or think we are wasting taxpayer money,” Capt. Steve Ruda said.

The dog, nicknamed Vernon after the city where he was rescued, remained in quarantine at the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority shelter in Downey, just south of Los Angeles.

Joe St. Georges, 50, the 25-year firefighting veteran who hoisted Vernon to safety, lost a fingernail and fractured a thumb when the dog bit him during the rescue. St. Georges just needs time to heal and he will be back at work, Ruda said. “He’s anxious to get back to work to be with his crew.”

The dog, which appears to be about 4 years old and weighs about 65 pounds, was eating everything given to him, sleeping well and showing no signs of rabies, said Capt. Aaron Reyes, director of operations for the SAACA shelter.

If no owner shows up, “we do have a mile-long list of people who want him,” Reyes said.

On several Internet sites with comments about the rescue, the only people who left their names were those who supported the effort. There were a couple of open critics, but their identities were not easy to decipher.

Friday’s rescue was televised nationally by the major cable channels.

Downstream from the rescue site, the water was much deeper and the current much faster, Reyes said.

“The dog would have drifted on down and died. Do you just wait at the mouth of the river and wait for the carcass? Any way you slice it, that is unacceptable. They would not have been able to live that down,” Reyes said. “They made a decision and we support that decision.”

Firefighters on the ground said a crew could get the dog and the helicopter pilot, who had been standing by just 45 seconds away from the river, reported he could clear high tension lines in the area, Ruda said.

Swift water teams were on standby because of weeklong storms, Ruda said. Although as many as 50 firefighters were at the river, no firefighters were called in on overtime to take part in the rescue.

“All life is important,” Ruda said. To prove his point, he pointed out that firefighters carry oxygen masks for cats and dogs that become victims of fire.

In addition, he said, 900 people die every year across the country in water accidents and one-third of them are rescuers. If St. Georges and his crew had failed to get the dog, “civilians, do-gooders and good Samaritans” would have been in the river, Ruda said.

The dog is thoroughly enjoying all the attention, Reyes said. “He’s a big lover” and caters to women at the shelter.

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — An improvised group of animal lovers for years sheltered, captured and adopted stray cats that were dumped on the Tennessee Valley Authority reservation, but TVA officials recently requested that the animals be gone for good.

The trouble is, organizers say residents will keep supplying unwanted “Rock Pile cats” on the Rock Pile section of the reservation.

On a recent day, four cats hung around a rock crevice adorned with pillows and blankets.

Joann Johnson drove up, parked her car and popped the trunk, filled with bags and cans of food.

“I just got a late start feeding them,” she said.

Johnson has fed the cats since 1996. Carl Overton has fed the cats since 2000. Along with Elaine Bray, the trio keep the animals fed and work to get them medically checked, spayed or neutered and into homes.

“It’s not their fault that they’ve been abandoned,” Overton said.

“That’s where the real problem is — people dropping them off,” Johnson replied.

The trio work with Shoals Animal Hospital and Colbert Animal Clinic that help with spaying and neutering the cats and Pets Are Worth Saving pay for fixing the animals and help with the adoptions.

The trio pay for food and cover the costs of medical expenses out of their own pockets.

TVA recently clarified its policy across all its properties: Get rid of the cats.

“If progress hasn’t been made, we’ll start removing the animals ourselves,” said Scott Brooks, TVA spokesman. Brooks didn’t give an exact time line for the cat removal, and added the TVA police weren’t taking action at this point but that “hopefully we can have the problem solved by spring.”

Brooks said TVA is requesting people not put out food for the cats because of public safety concerns and health concerns about feline diseases.

The cat lovers said the animals are fed so they won’t feast on wildlife and are adopted before they can breed. Overton said the biggest population he’s seen is 16 cats. Plus, the “Rock Pile cats” have become an attraction for visitors who leave notes, food and donations for the drop-offs.

Johnson got the dry and soft food out of her trunk and went over to the four cats who cautiously approached the dishes. Owners await all four cats, but the future pets require being caught, medically checked and fixed before the felines go to homes.

“I commend those people for doing that, but the people just turning the cats loose are adding to the problem of overpopulation,” said Kenny Price, Colbert County Animal Control officer.

Not everyone loves the cats.

Three weeks ago, Overton found two cats had been smashed against the rocks and died.

Several minutes after being fed, the cats had had their fill and started licking their paws and wandering around.

“I’ll take my leave because I have two other cats to feed,” Johnson said.

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — Police in a small northern Arizona city are investigating the deaths of two giraffes from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, and two others likely will have to find new homes.

Freddie and Tom Hancock of Page acquired the giraffes as part of a plan to build a wildlife preserve on city property they leased in 2008 that also would house exotic birds, reptiles and a camel.

Those plans unraveled as the Hancocks and the city engaged in a legal battle over terms of the lease agreement for the 175-acre (70-hectare) property in southeast Page.

City Manager Bo Thomas said the Hancocks never posted a required $100,000 bond or irrevocable letter of credit, while the Hancocks argued the city failed to act in good faith and did not provide them with a bond form.

A judge last week ruled in favor of the city, and Thomas said Wednesday that a timeline for eviction is being prepared.

Meanwhile, the animal rights group PETA is calling on authorities in Page to confiscate and relocate the remaining giraffes, fearing they are mistreated. The group also asked police to determine whether the Hancocks violated animal cruelty laws in relation to the deaths of the other giraffes.

Page police Chief Charlie Dennis said it is unusual to have two giraffes die within a short period — one died Nov. 20 and the other on Jan. 2 — but nothing at the scene was cause for suspicion. Necropsy results are pending.

“There’s nothing for us to give justification to remove the giraffes at this time,” he said.

The wildlife preserve likely would have provided a boost in tourism for the city of about 7,000 that sits near Lake Powell and is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Flagstaff. Thomas said residents had mixed feelings about the idea, but the city council wanted to give the Hancocks an opportunity to make the venture work.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t going to work,” he said.

Freddie Hancock, of the Voices of the Wild Foundation, said its mission was to provide a place where animals that had been abused, confiscated by authorities or voluntarily surrendered could live out the remainder of their lives. But they never moved forward because of issues with city officials who “throw up this wall we could not get over,” she said.

She disputed that the animals were mistreated and said they were like her children and would be taken care of whether they’re in Page or elsewhere.

MONTEZUMA, Iowa — Sheriff’s deputies in Poweshiek County say they have arrested two men in connection with the stabbing of 17 cattle at a sale barn in Montezuma last week.

Poweshiek County Chief Deputy Lawrence McNaul says deputies arrested 20-year-old Robert Edward Fults and 22-year-old Jamey Leroy Christofferson Wednesday evening.

Fults and Christofferson, who are both from Montezuma, are each charged with 17 counts of livestock abuse.

McNaul both men refused to make any comment.

Workers at the Montezuma Sales Co. sale barn found the cattle with stab wounds the morning of Jan. 6.

The wounds were severe enough that all 17 animals required veterinary treatment and three had to be euthanized. McNaul says detectives quickly ruled out insurance fraud or possible cult activity in the investigation.

RENO, Nevada — In one of the worst cases they can remember, Nevada agriculture officials have cited a woman for animal cruelty for neglecting more than 100 barnyard animals, including 35 starving horses and a goat that died from eating wool off a sheep carcass.

Jan Lemley of Battle Mountain faces 42 counts of animal cruelty. Each count carries a civil fine of $1,000, said Nevada Department of Agriculture spokesman Ed Foster.

Lemley did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press on Wednesday. She told The Battle Mountain Bugle, which first reported the incident, that her attorney had advised her not to comment.

It was not immediately clear if any criminal charges would be filed.

Lander County Sheriff Ron Unger said two of the horses, three llamas, three goats and two sheep died at the rural property in Battle Mountain about 220 miles (354 kilometers) east of Reno.

“It’s the worst case of animal cruelty they’ve ever witnessed,” Foster told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “It’s really sad.”

The two horses — which a neighbor had described as “walking skeletons” — died from severe malnutrition and at least one of the starving goats died from ingesting wool, Foster said.

“There was nothing to eat, so they started eating wool off the sheep carcasses,” he said.

Unger did not immediately return a call seeking comment. He told the Bugle that 53 goats, 24 llamas, 20 sheep, six pigs and an assortment of chickens and rabbits remained on the property under the control of Lander County and the sheriff’s office.

The 33 surviving horses have been transferred to an undisclosed location where they are receiving round-the-clock care from state veterinarians.