Palo Alto’s kiddie zoo just reopened! Here are 8 animals that zookeepers think you shouldn’t miss on your first visit back.

After two years and $33 million, the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo is twice the size, with 50 species and a two-story treehouse. (Photo courtesy Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo) When the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo outgrew its clunky 1940s architecture (including concrete bathtub-shaped exhibits), the beloved family staple closed to undergo a two-year makeover. Now it’s back at nearly double the size with a Loose-in-the-Zoo theme that ...

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Mastiffs and mohawks: photos of California’s most interactive dog show competition

The Golden Gate Kennel Club’s annual Best in Show showdown was curiously adorable, or perhaps adorably curious. By Kali Shiloh Images by Jason Backrack & Amar Dillon Madison, a Silver Grand Champion Dalmatian, focuses on her breeder-owner-handler, Dawn Mauel of Los Altos, at the Golden Gate Kennel Club on Saturday. “She’s a lot of fun,” Mauel says of the two-year-old, who goes to a couple shows per month. Here Madison stands almost perfectly still — she just can’t ...

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In the age of the rescue dog, the Bay Area’s most prestigious purebred show still matters

Local champions on the care and criticism of a canine crucible: the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show “You don’t have to show dogs to love them, but I think you have to love dogs to show them,” says breeder-owner-handler Pat Trotter, a Golden Gate Kennel Club maven who’s also been to Westminster 11 times. (Photo courtesy of the Golden Gate Kennel Club) The semen is always cold. It has to be. At home ...

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Reimagining the way we ask our kids, “How was your day?”

Stanford grads disrupt the children’s book formula with Goodnight News By Eva Glasrud When it comes to parenting, it can be the simple things that are most challenging, such as the basic “How was your day?” question being answered with an abrupt-sounding one-word answer. In ways that are both predictable and cliche, many parents regard a short response as a sign of growing distance or a candid indication that their child simply doesn’t ...

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