Love of Animals

Love of animals;

I was driving fast past Frenchy’s field in Santa Fe New Mexico and there, in a movable pen, slicing the field into discreet and edible sections, were 51 goats. I slowed. I got the hit. So I got out and talked to that goat wrangler. And the “love of animals” blog topic was born.

My beloved canine companion, Munjai, has become a teenager. Where she was silent before, she now whines to go out, and whines to come in, and whines at our pace of walk preparation, and whines at boring food, and whines when we won’t play face hockey with her. She’s the most wonderful pain.

My dear friend Pam has three dogs and her man Joe has a bird, a female macaw named Rexy. That bird will bite a strangers finger off, but she and Joe, kiss and snuggle like a pair of lovers 6 months in.

I remember my uncle and Big Red. His deceased beloved 2nd wife Jeanie, (his first wife, my aunt Carol, had left him for another woman), had bought Big Red as a gift knowing how he loved watching calf roping. Though he’d become fantastic at it, he’d stopped calf roping after Jeanie died, but Big Red and his abundant soft lips, were an endless snuggly interplay between my uncle and the colossal creature.

30 years ago my was-wife moved into my urban industrial loft in Palo Alto California; “either the rabbit is welcome too, or I’m outta here”, she stated flatly. In spite of myself, and my materialism, (that rabbit snicked my $100 check book cover soon after moving in, and boy was I pissed), I learned to actually love another species from Corinne. 100 hours of electrical cord protecting effort later and many aghast guffaws at chopped down bonsai, I fell in love with the “two pound aggressor”, as Beatrix the boy, revealed through much self pleasuring, was later called.

“I hate this dog; why did I agree to this? I was manipulated by Kiowa and by my parents; I’m taking her back. I’m surrendering this stupid dog. Fuck this!” And so my beloved came to love our dog over 6 dubious feeling months and now says; “don’t worry Munjai, we are NEVER giving you up. You’re our family member! We love you. Oh, look how sweet she is, she wants in on the hug too; come here Munjai”!

Commuting home one afternoon before children, my was-wife and I had cleared town by 10 miles on our 34 mile each-way-daily-trip when I heard a faint, but distinct “peeeep” from the paper bag at her feet. “WHAT is in that bag”?! I stammered. “Nothing”; came her deadpan retort. “NOTHING?”; “What’s in that BAG”? I practically yelled. “Nothing”; said nice and flat. Now we were in the humor realm. I had always appreciated this side of Corinne. “Nothing? THAT, is the sound of a lot of work for Andrew”! And so began a 13 year adventure with chickens that culminated in producing blown eggs for Martha Stewart’s Easter cover spread.

Aminita Thorp, now Berto, and with a 17 month old precocious child named Miracle, brings her goats to help folks clean up their property in a wonderful way; the goats fertilize the ground, turn it a bit, and turn heads, all without machinery, and with a lot of love.

I asked Corinne of late, my original animal-love teacher, how she saw her relationship with the various non-human charges in her world. As always she had a poignant take on these inter species relationships; “When an animal comes to me of his own accord - like with a house rabbit or an un-penned dog, that warms my heart. When I understand what my pet is communicating to me - like, wanna be petted or want a carrot or wanna play - I am communicating with someone who isn’t human, and that’s a thrill always. It’s connection - and they aren’t about appearance. So much of our human relations depend on appearance. With animals it feels like it’s about what I do - how I care for them”.  

I asked my beloved Meridian what she had to say about loving animals; she too always has some fascinating and unexpected take on creature to creature relating of all kinds; She had this to say; “they reflect my shadow to me; where I’m a piece of shit to myself. They show me to myself. Then I touch them and I love them. Before I even realize it, I’m like wow, “I have loved”.

Thank you dear Reader!

Andrew