Bona-Fido

06/05/2026

Goddard Park Farmers Market today 9am-1pm
Dogs welcome!

05/29/2026

We know what the forecast is looking like tomorrow — windy, overcast, a bit chillier than we’d prefer for the end of May — but our event is still on!

Come by and support these wonderful local businesses. They are all family owned and are looking forward to meeting you! There will be baskets full of goodies raffled off tomorrow as well and games in the field 💛

05/14/2026

Fishermans Market May 24 has been cancelled due to rain. Bona Fido will be at the Scituate Farmers Market Saturday May 23 9-12.

05/02/2026

If you're having trouble ordering on our website, just call or text your order. Website is being repaired.

04/29/2026

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04/25/2026

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An opossum panting on a hot afternoon — mouth wide, drooling, barely moving — looks like something is seriously wrong. The first thought is usually rabies. It's almost never rabies. Opossums have a body temperature too low for the rabies virus to replicate efficiently.

What you're looking at is an animal that can't cool itself down.

Opossums don't have effective sweat glands. They can't pant efficiently the way a dog does. When the temperature climbs, their option is to open their mouth, drool, and spread saliva on their fur — a slow, inefficient version of evaporative cooling that falls behind fast on a hot day.

This becomes dangerous during early warm spells. A female carrying a pouch full of developing joeys in spring is already running a higher metabolic load than normal. Add an unexpected warm afternoon while she's still in her winter coat, and her cooling system can't keep up.

She's not staggering because she's diseased. She's staggering because her core temperature is climbing and she can't bring it down.

- Set a shallow bowl of water in a shaded spot near the animal — not directly next to it. She needs to find it on her own terms
- Don't spray her with water. The shock can make things worse
- Don't touch her. An overheated opossum may bite defensively — not from aggression, from stress
- Give her shade and space. If she can rehydrate and cool down, she'll move on after dark
- If she hasn't moved by the next morning, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Not pest control

She cleans up carrion, fallen fruit, and garden slugs. She eats venomous snakes. She doesn't dig, doesn't chew wiring, doesn't raid trash. She passes through, eats what's available, and moves on.

The open mouth isn't a threat display. It's not disease. It's an animal trying to cool a body that wasn't built for the heat.

A shallow bowl of water. A shaded corner. That may be enough.

04/25/2026

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How Far Animals Can Detect a Scent

Human smell is nearly useless by comparison. Here is
what the animal kingdom's olfactory system actually
looks like — measured in feet and miles.

HUMAN — ~5 feet
The baseline. The average person can detect strong
odors at around 5 feet under ideal conditions. Our
olfactory receptors number around 6 million. This
is the number everything below is measured against.

CAT — ~650 feet
A domestic cat has approximately 200 million olfactory
receptors — 14 times the human count. Their sense of
smell is critical for territory marking, prey detection,
and reading social signals from other cats.

DEER — ~1,600 feet (about ⅓ mile)
White-tailed deer rely on scent as their primary
predator detection system. Their nose contains an
estimated 297 million receptors. A deer can detect
a human hunter from a third of a mile away — which
is why serious hunters hunt with the wind.

WILD BOAR — ~2,300 feet (about ½ mile)
Wild boar root and forage almost entirely by smell,
locating food buried several inches underground.
Their olfactory system is sophisticated enough to
detect odors through soil at distance.

DOG — ~1.2 miles
A dog's 300 million olfactory receptors allow them
to detect scents at concentrations 100,000 times
lower than humans can perceive. Search and rescue
dogs use this capability to locate people buried
under avalanche debris or collapsed buildings.

WOLF — ~2 miles
Wolves use their exceptional scent detection to
track prey across terrain, assess pack boundaries,
and coordinate hunts. Two miles of scent detection
range means prey has virtually no safe approach angle
downwind of a wolf.

ELEPHANT — ~12 miles
Elephants have the most olfactory receptor genes of
any mammal studied — approximately 2,000. African
elephants can detect water sources from miles away,
and elephants can smell a family member's footprints
that are hours old.

BEAR — ~19 miles
The grizzly bear has the most powerful nose of any
land mammal. With a nasal surface area 100 times
larger than a human's, bears can detect carrion
from nearly 20 miles away and track scent trails
days old.

Olfactory capabilities vary by species, individual,
wind conditions, and scent concentration.

03/16/2026

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03/13/2026

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02/26/2026

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They call us ugly.
They call us pests.
They say we don't belong.
But we were here first.
We raise our babies.
We keep ecosystems balanced.
We're just trying to live the life meant for us.
THE OPOSSUM:
→ Eats 5,000 ticks per season
→ Immune to most snake venom
→ Nearly impossible to get rabies
→ "Plays dead" because it's TERRIFIED of you
THE RACCOON:
→ Remembers problem solutions for 3+ years
→ Has more sensory receptors in paws than most mammals
→ Washes food to "see" it better through touch
→ Just wants to eat and raise babies
THE SKUNK:
→ Eats grubs destroying your lawn
→ Digs up yellow jacket nests (you're welcome)
→ Only sprays as absolute LAST resort
→ Stomps feet and warns you FIRST
You call the exterminator. You put out poison. You shoot them.
For WHAT?
For eating the pests you'd pay money to remove?
For existing in a neighborhood built on THEIR home?
Kindness should include all lives.
They're not beautiful to everyone. They're not always welcomed. They're not always understood.
But they're just trying to live the life meant for them.
Maybe let them.