Animals

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Animals are part of my life. They enhance and enrich it. They make me feel everything God meant for humans to feel in this life; love, hate, anger, benevolence, tolerance, satisfaction, frustration, impatience, peace. And more.

Whether from chickens, dogs, horses, goats, cats, wild song birds, skunks or feral cats, the emotions are real, raw and unedited. We feel a certain superiority over animals, and the bible says we should. If that ain't your guide, Darwin fills in the rest.

Regardless, we attempt to set up success with our domestic animals; for behavior, for breeding, for increased enhancement of our expectations. Good eggs, chicks or pups when we want, resistance to disease, good behavior, are all common outcomes we strive for. But, alas, nature and the organisms resist, and we are often subjected (or treated) to unexpected, unplanned for, and unacceptable results.

And, how often are we begrudgingly delighted by the outcome? Come on, power issues and animal husbandry and eco-crap aside, isn't it great when a hen goes all broody and a few weeks later, emerges with a bunch of fluffy, scrappy little chicks that you would have never allowed to hatch if she had laid the eggs in the proper designated nest? Isn't it cool when a mating pair of mallards show up to nest in your back yard, requiring you to protect them from pets and family (even being unwilling to light the bonfire in the pit out back?)?

It has been said that life happens when you are making other plans, and animals are the authors of that school of thought. They don't do so well with plans, especially those that don't include their own particular chaos theory.

And, how blessed we are that that is true. And, how wonderful are the humans that appreciate and accept the unexpected and unscripted outcomes, allowing nature and the animals to do a little tailoring in the fabric of our lives.

It gives a glimpse of wildness, a closer acceptance of the bigger ecology that we do not, and cannot, control.