I grew up in Upstate New York on 14 acres in the middle of nowhere.  Nature was a huge part of my life.  Other kids had real neighbors and we had deer, turkeys, rabbits, birds, squirrels, and all sorts of wildlife as fellow members of our neighborhood.  My parents were gardening junkies and every year our garden grew dramatically, incorporating crazy kinds of squash, potatoes, string beans, lettuce (not just one kind, but every kind known to man), herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and everything you could think of that grows in Zone 5.  My father can attribute his love of gardening to my grandfather. I attribute my love of gardening to my parents. I, too, have the gardening junkie gene.    It was evident that I’d always have a soft spot for animals as a child when I became obsessed with a book called The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader (first published in 1949), which tells the story of animals surviving winter.  I worried and cried about how deer would find food and wondered where …