If you were to ask me what makes me tick, what actually makes me live, I would have to parse it down to two words: animal life.
I grew up in the woods. My family home was located down a limestone gravel driveway that cut its way through a stand of secondary growth hardwood forest. Wild things were there.
There were also tame things. My grandparents lived just yards from parents, and their dogs and those of my parents mixed together. I got to be around a lot of different dogs as a child. Dogs are always going to be my favorite animals. I don’t think they are ever going to stop fascinating me.
My grandfather worked in a very remote area, and when I was small, he was still working. He was always bringing me home things in his lunch bucket–fence lizards, skinks, maybe a ring-necked snake. One he brought me home a dead screech owl. It had been hit by a car, and when my grandpa came across it, it was still alive. He put it in his lunch bucket, but it must have died during the day.
It was a little russet-colored owl with huge yellow eyes. I didn’t know that it was illegal for me to have it, but I got to take to school and do a show and tell.
I did the same with a shrew that my grandpa managed to catch at the edge of his garden. I was in second grade, and I do remember going through the evolutionary history of shrews– at least what I’d seen on PBS. I think that I had unfortunately placed the native shrew with the treeshrews, but how was a second-grader supposed to know the difference?
I just like animals. I like writing about them. I like talking about them. I like going to places where i might actually run into something unexpected.
But even something as banal as a cottontail rabbit running for the cover is enough to lift my spirits and spark my imagination.
I still look at the other creatures in much the same way I did that screech owl.
They are at once wondrous as well as mysterious but strangely familiar.
Western man has deluded himself into denying that he is an animal, but when I beyond the other creatures, I feel a kinship– one that cannot be denied or obfuscated.
It is that unadulterated “animality” that keeps me going.
I have to recharge and reconnect with that essence on a regular basis. Otherwise, I become dull, listless, even melancholic.
One of the main purposes of this blog is share with you my passions– maybe give you a chance to recharge and reconnect with your own animalness.
Just for a bit.
And if not, just indulge me.
You sound like me :-D. But then, probably most of your readers are like-minded souls as well :-) .
If you pick up one of our shrews it will likely die of fright. Of course they don’t live long as we know. I once, as a little lad, skinned a (dead) shrew. After drying the skin I placed it on my dressing table. After a couple of weeks I woke up one morning with the fright of my life – the skin was moving..!! due to maggots of course. I never skinned anything else.
Gargh! As a little girl, I found a dead shrew next door’s cat had caught and left me as a present. I’m now thankful that despite trying to take a look inside said corpse, I couldn’t find a knife in the kitchen that was sharp enough to break the skin. I spent most of my childhood obsessed with wildlife, animals, dogs in particular, dinosaurs and the universe. My mum used to despair at how connected I was to my animalness as I was always in the mud or bringing frogs home rather than playing with dolls.
Totally agree, I love where I am living, deep in the bush (in Oz) and every morning I wake to see the roos grazing peacefully, the bird life is amazing and I am so honoured to have magpies, cockatoos, galahs, corellas, rosellas, and the most stunning bird species of all called the King Parrot, come to my back door for a handfull of grain. And although sometimes the kangaroos can be dangerous especially when the big males are fighting, I am proud to say that the mob that lives outside are now allowing me to sit within about 50 metres of them without disappearing in fright, they even tolerate my pack of Belgians, and continue to graze whilst we walk past them.
This week has been an awful week for me, watching the destruction of my forest to make way for a road. I feel heartsick watching this forest disappear before my eyes and it looks like a moonscape now. However, after the trucks disappear for the day, my bird friends fly in, so all is not lost. But it looks like we will have to move eventually, I cannot bare NOT to be surrounded by the beauty of the bush. I need to feel my spirit rejuvenate, and I can only do so when I look down into the valley and see the thousands of birds that swoop and fly and call out to each other in flight.
I believe that we should all ‘tread lightly upon this earth’ and to my surprise whilst watching this destruction of a pristine virgin forest I have realised I am actually a ‘greenie’.
I love my dogs, but I really love all animals, so call me a greenie, ‘cat licker’ (my favourite) but don’t forget dog licker, horse licker (you get the ghist) and I’m proud of it :)
So animal lover, yes I am and proud of it, but also I feel that there is a real spirit in the land and funny to say, people who come to visit, look outside and say exactly the same as I do, you feel yourself rejuvenate.
I love reading this blog, I love talking about dogs so keep up the good work.
Very timely considering whats been discussed on your FB page of late and nicely put as usual.
I’m surprised you didn’t endeavor to become a wildlife filmmaker.
If you haven’t read “Life on Air” by David Attenborough you may find it interesting. I recommend the audio version recorded by the man himself.
Then there are the books by Gerald Durrell who had a life long passion to have his own zoo. He is responsible for saving a few species from extinction on the island of Mauritius.
Nice advice!
Thanks for sharing from your very personal life.
Your blog has definitely helped me to reconnect with my past involving wildlife and dogs. The only other guy who I give credit to in this regard is British adventurer and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. This guy helped me overcome my reluctance to hike at night time due to a tragic event in the past. Now that my dog has grown up, I am overcoming my fear of the dark.
Thanks again and I hope you continue to share more.
T H White, when asked about his “recreations” for British Who’s Who, answered “animals”.
In second grade I brought a live garter snake for show and tell. In an old shoe. My teacher was quite gracious about it. It made it home safely, too.