IT IS NOT ONLY FINE FEATHERS THAT MAKE FINE BIRDS*

I’ve always been a collector, especially of small things. I’ve had shadowboxes to corral them in since I was a girl. Other than being wee, there wasn’t always a unifying theme to the things I collected, though small animal figurines keep showing up in every grouping. Some of them were outgrown as I got tired of them or lost interest: the dogs I adored as a child, the cow-themed things I had for awhile after college, the thankfully short pink flamingo phase. The only real collection in my house that is worthy of the name is in the moose bathroom,...