@senatorshoshana hot tip: try adopting from rural areas. we're far more desperate for adopters and less wrapped up in ego and "mission creep." mostly. but after a decade of fostering I've also come to conclude a lot of animal rescue staff are bonkers.
I can't believe how much ecological history is packed into this novel. The extermination of predators & passenger pigeons, the push and pull between forests & agriculture, chestnut blightโit's all here, and germane to the plot. There's even a super-hot elm bark beetle sex scene!