Darwin’s Legacy

This was Darwin. Not the “Darwin” you probably expected. Darwin Jonas Shipley hiked his final trail on April 24, 2016 after 16 long years of exploration. The legacy he left was a lasting sense of curiosity, tenacity, and never ending discovery.

The first five months of his life saw him transferred from one “forever home” to another, three in total, until he found the right owners who could appreciate his unique brand of Beagle-ness. He was independent, single minded, and sometimes when he felt like it, capable of deductive reasoning. He was a dog who kept his humans on their toes.

When he explored a trail Dar always went ahead, he hated turning around and would make his displeasure evident. His people had to devise tactical ways of making every trail into a loop. Beagles are notorious for stopping, sniffing and not moving for however long they see fit. On one particular hike, a box turtle laboring through the underbrush beside a trail caught his attention. While examining his specimen, the turtle withdrew into its armor. Unable to coax the beast from the rock that protected it, our beagle naturalist flopped down beside the reptile and stared up at his minions. “This thing is nifty” his eyes said, “and I’m not leaving ‘till it comes out, then were taking it home…K?”.After a tense standoff, the box turtle was removed far off the trail, and a despondent beagle was drug home.

Darwin never gave up or gave in. As he got older, he continued to press on, to explore new smells, and no matter the obstacle, never stop.  No space was ever big enough; he had to press further out into the world.

For all of his awesome traits, he was a troubled beagle. The traumas suffered before he found his “for real forever home” remained with him throughout his life. Despite care and constant training, he still sometimes showed signs of fear and anxiety. He also lived with allergies that his Vet couldn’t determine. Despite these setbacks he still had a spark of puppy life that stayed with him almost to the day he died, and even on that day he seemed to hold out as long as he could.

It’s hard to write this even with the passage of three years. Darwin’s impact will remain with all those who have ever met him. Even those who labeled themselves “not a dog person” were won over by his charisma.  His legacy, which underlies our mission, is to always be curious and employ all the senses to appreciate the beauty in nature and life.

There was a grand idea for what this site was supposed to be, but as it evolved so did the direction. We set out to make a difference in the world by explaining how science isn’t the enemy and pseudoscience is dangerously altering people’s perceptions. The scientific and environmental crap that has happened over the six week lead-up to the launch of this site has kind of jaded our writing. I find myself angrier each time I write a new entry. Dar hated when I was angry.

The take home here is we don’t know what will be posted here. The theme will be nature, but the content could be a mixed bag of anything. There could be personal reflections, science discussions, photos,a book review, maybe even a recipe. We don’t know. Darwin’s legacy was to always go forward, and that’s what we aim to do.