J. D. (Doug) Porter developed his love of nature growing up in the piney woods and mangrove swamps of Florida’s gulf coast. He nurtured that passion for over forty years as he managed parks, zoos, and museums; and studied wildlife in the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos Islands, the African savanna, and the Arctic tundra. Doug combined his experience with animals and his love of historical fiction into his first novel, The Menagerie, A Zoo Story in 2012 and continued following one of his characters when he published The Dogcatcher and The Fox in 2020. The novels explore the history of the American zoo and the origins of America’s animal welfare movement. Doug used his COVID isolation during the summer of 2020 to publish his memoir, Lessons from the Zoo: Ten Animals That Changed My Life. In 2024 he published an anthology of articles he wrote for the Albany Herald newspaper in his latest book, Roaming, Rambling, and Reminiscing: Musings from a South Georgia Mule Wagon. He lives in Atlanta where he is an active member of the Atlanta Writers Club and the Broadleaf Writers Association.