We had at least eight dogs during the first 24 years of my life and now eight more during our 49-year marriage. I grew up with a large aviary with love birds, we had two parakeets, numerous cats, and a salt-water aquarium. Durning our marriage in addition to the dogs, we had three cats, chickens, goats, a crested crane, an aquarium, and a pet rat. Oh, and we took care of two horses. On top of all that, for almost two years I managed a dairy farm with more than 700 cows. In other words, we are animal people.
I could be James Harriot’s evil twin brother; there are so many animal stories I can tell. One stupid story is about the dairy farm in Uganda. We milked approximately 300 cows, twice a day by hand. I wanted to introduce our young German Shepard Buddha to farm life and took him with me into the pen where the animals are held prior to milking. My wife kept yelling for me not to do it, but I ignored her with all by bravado. We were barely in the pen when a cow charged us. Buddha our dog got out of the way, but I was not that fast or lucky. I ended on the horns of the animal and was thrown into the air and then fell on the ground in a mixture of mud and cow poop. All the milkers were standing there laughing as I, their boss got up off the ground. Thank goodness nothing was hurt, except for my pride.
Neither the Mamba nor the offending cow were really after me. The Mamba was probably curious, or looking warmth with no intention of striking. The cow, however, had good reasons to fear dogs. There was a large pack of wild dogs on the dairy farm in Uganda, which would attack cows. They would lie in waiting for a cow to give birth somewhere in the field and tear the calf apart while it was emerging out of the birth canal. The dogs would also be waiting for the afterbirth. So, it was understandable that she was trying to defend herself against the dog. I was in between, protecting our dog.
Working with animals always teaches you lessons. One of the most important things I learned in life is that, unlike humans, animals don’t kill individuals from the same species just for fun, or even to steal something, get rid of evidence, or just express your hatred or dislike of someone. I am sure we can find the occasional exception, but that is not the point. Inter species fights are territorial, for dominance and procreation. But humans kill each other all kinds of reasons. Humans are cruel. They torture each other, jail each other, you name it. When animals kill each other, it is most likely extra species or between different species. In this case the killing is usually in a predator and prey (food) relationship, or for defense. It seems that we have evolved to a higher level of killing and tend not to eat the result of our human-to-human kill. We still commit a lot of senseless killing.
So, what am I trying to say here, what do I recommend, or what can we do about it? I am not sure there is a correct answer to that question. My brain went there, and my (typing) fingers followed. You know my brain; it can make bizarre jumps, and I like to share them with you. Recently, we were in a group, and we talked about animals and our adventures traveling with ours. “Write a book about it,” they told us. Perhaps we will. For now, consider this a minor installment or a chapter: one animal story with a little philosophical musing on top of it.
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| Yours truly, with our dog Radar during our recent camping tri[ in Belle Isle State Park. Radar is probably one of our most challenging dogs, being a mix of Rottweiler, Pitbull, German Shepard, Doberman and some unknow mix. He is very loyal, loving and very protective. He is constantly on the lookout and when he's with you always tries to pay attention to you. |
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