I just finished reading a lovely novel, The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss. It's about a young woman who strikes out to make her living "gentling" horses in 1917, when many of the men were off to war. She's more comfortable around animals than she is around people (a current topic of postings on my Feb. 4th '09 blog) and uses methods atypical of the time. Rather than "breaking" horses, Molly uses what people often now call "horse whisperer" techniques to teach horses to work with, rather than against, the people who ride them. In spite of my lack of fondness for the title "horse whisperer," I will never forget watching horse trainer Pat Parelli work an "uncatchable" horse in an arena in Madison, Wisconsin. The horse was so difficult to catch that the club who brought Parelli to Madison Read More
Why are some People more comfortable around animals?
There's an interesting discussion going on, on-line, in my university course right now. One of the students asked why some people like non-human animals more than they do members of their own species. There are some extremely interesting comments posted to that question, especially about animals being 'innocents' rather than moral agents who can choose to be cruel. The question, and other potential answers, reminded me of an essay I wrote in Dog is My Co-Pilot, titled "Love is Never Having to Say Anything at All." In it I argue that one of the reasons we love dogs so much is that, well, because they can't talk. As I write in the essay: "Words may be wonderful things, but they carry weight with them, and there's a great lightness of being when they are discarded." Of course, this Read More
Lambs Thriving, Dogs Playing Is Warming My Heart
Much warmer now, might even be up to 20 degrees. Wow, feels like an entirely different place. The lambs are doing beautifully. On Sunday Jim and I opened up the panel dividing the two ewes with lambs and let them all in together. We wanted to wait to be sure that the lambs were well bonded to their moms (and vice versa) and that they were stable and healthy enough to tolerate being shoved around a bit by the ewe that wasn't their mom. Given how vigorous Snickers was (I am being so kind here, using the word vigorous instead of several others I can think of) when she was trying to reject her own little ewe lamb, I didn't want to subject the single lamb to that kind of abuse. However, we don't call him White Dude for nothing. He looks like he's in training for a starring role in professional Read More
Too cold; Feed the birds
It was 26 below this morning on the thermometer by the kitchen window, 36 below at a neighbor's. I suspect the temperature in the barn, which is down the hill from the house, was somewhere in between. Good grief. I was born in Arizona, and the concept that it is MUCH warmer in the freezer compartment of my refrigerator than it is outside just doesn't compute. It seems so very, very wrong. Lassie couldn't handle it at all. I took her out this morning, hoping she could urinate or defecate in seconds, but she stood outside for a few seconds and than ran inside and pooped on the dining room floor. She looked up at me while she did so as if she was concerned about what she was doing.... Am I being problematically anthropomorphic for thinking she felt unease about going in the house? (She has Read More
The Redstart Rollercoaster; Lambs in Winter
Has it just been two days since Snicker's lambs were born? Or two weeks? Here's the good news: the lambs, at the moment anyway, are doing well. Here's the bad news: since I last wrote, Snickers tried her best to kill the ewe lamb, both lambs got diarrhea, both lambs began bawling non-stop as lambs only do when they are not getting enough food, it sounded like the white lamb had pneumonia, my car threatened to break down so we had to drive it into Madison in a snowstorm at rush hour, and then go back in to get it at rush hour later that day. I should start at the beginning. Having lambs at all in the depth of a Wisconsin winter can only be described as an agricultural whoopsie of major proportions. Our lambs are supposed to come in early April, when it's warmer and the grass will be lush Read More