When we lived in the suburbs I had an ok threshold of yucky things. I have always been able to deal with spiders. I usually just walk right by when I see one. I would jump when I saw snakes. Yes, we had snakes in the suburbs. Pretty something, eh? (I still am “eh- ing since our Canadian friends left.)
But in the last few weeks, I have delivered baby goats. I have watched one die. I have lost two chickens to heat stress. (I would love to do a whole blog on this weather we have settled into but wont bore you. But I will just say, HOLY COW!!!!!!!! Enough said. ………. I started this post 4 days ago. And I will say it again about the weather. HOLY COW!!!!) Animal poop of all kinds is normal daily routine. Yuck is becoming “old hat” here.
Makes you yearn for cooler days!
My dogs and I were taking an evening stroll a couple of weeks ago when life was cooler and more lovely. We met Maggie, the hunter beast cat, about a quarter of the way down the driveway. She was playing with a mouse or mole. She “plays” by letting it lay in tortured suffering for a while as she rests several feet away. When it shows any sign of life, she saunters over and gives it a bat or two to show it who is boss then returns to her post. The game is truly not very nice. As we approached the scene, Simon, our big black bear dog who is afraid of his shadow BUT likes to bully all the animals ran over and then jumped and ran away when this little thing jumped over his foot.
That did not surprise me in the slightest. Poor thing. Simon. Not the mouse.
Samdog then followed along. And if I may speak about Samdog for a moment. Samdog is 11. She is deaf. And she is the happiest dog alive. Life is grand. Always. Every day is a new experience that is to be lived and shared with great vigor and joyful anticipation. She approaches all with an attitude of adventure. A mission to be had. I have much to learn from her. I believe she also loves being deaf. It is her form of solitude which I greatly appreciate. Hmm. Yeah.
She comes along, snatches the little rodent and keeps right on moving. Does not skip a beat. She walked beside me popping this thing in and out of her mouth. The adventure was the walk and the rodent was a sidebar. It was just coming along for the ride. She continues to explore and stops to poop several times. All with the rodent riding along. This would be totally grossing me out one day in my not too distant past. I would be afraid the thing would fall out of her mouth and run over my toes.
So the coup de gras was after about ten minutes she tired of carrying it in her mouth because she couldn’t participate in all the sniffing, digging, and frolicking in waist-high weeds. Right next to me she decides to just start crunchin’ on it. Be gone with it! Loud crunch, crunch, crunch went all the bones of this creature. Down the pipe it went. Nothing was spared. She was free from her bondage of mouse and able to get on with the mission in her little mind. All the while, I walked beside her. I did not skip a beat either. I did not say “gross”. I did not stop in my tracks and say “Samdog, what did you just DOOOOOO?”
I am making progress in the land of the wild. And that brings me comfort. In some ways it links me to my descendents that came way before me. It links me to the era that I feel sometimes I shoulda been born. The settlers days.
I am grateful to be present for these kinds of events. I love living life through the small, small things that seem to not hold much significance. Those things mean the world to me. They are everything. They are truly what make our world go round and make us smile and feel alive and a part.
God bless you all,
Karen
The Shieling 