Animals

Out of the blue came the hoot of an owl.

Sometimes this happens in my back yard. Sometimes in my neighborhood. Sometimes I think it follows me.

It was a very pleasant surprise - three long, slow, low hoots. A pause, then it repeated. A pause again, then it repeated again.

It calls up in me the feeling of the deep woods. Where there are wise animals, knowing old, huge oaks, and the feel of soft, moist dirt underfoot.

The woods are alive with mystery and quiet surprise. At any moment there could appear a deer, a chipmunk, or a giant, black crow.

I am out driving to go to an appointment
And they changed the time
I had to go a little early
As I am driving down this country road
That I go down all the time
The beginning of December
I don’t know the exact date because I am not looking at a calendar
But low and behold in this field on the snow covered ground
In Bridgewater CT
Is this big huge black bear just hanging out in a field
I was just flabbergasted
I heard of these siting’s and people seeing them
I had to pull over in awe of this magnificent animal

I just learned of an amazing story
Of a pet name Hachi who was an Akita that was from Japan
Now Hachi was rescued by a professor
They had a great relationship the two of them
Now every day when the professor would go off to work
He would take a train to get there
Haichi would go with him to the train station and the professor would get on the train
Than Hachi would go home and hear the whistle and wait for the train
And would go back to the station and would be there waiting for him when the professor

You know who often teaches me
How to live life
Is my dog Missy
My shi tzu
I have to tell you
She really shows me how to embrace the day so often
When I get up no matter what time
What the weather is, whatever the conditions are
She just jumps up and is ready to the greet the day
She eyes me as I move around my home
She looks at what I do
And if she sees me put on my shoes and socks
Immediately she is ready to go
She has no clue where I am going
It could be somewhere not even fun that I am going

I’m in a concert
I’m being serenaded
I walked out
Listen to this
It’s amazing
The sounds of summer
The warm weather is here
And I am up in New Preston
I was just leaving a great event with friends and I said
Listen, listen to this
Wow you can be entertained anytime during the day by nature
You just walk out and there it is
I love the sound of the serenade
Encore, encore
There is all kinds of music out there
But the music of these peepers, frogs and nature

Dogs before the 19th century were largely functional, such as hunting, guard, and watch dogs. The Oxford Dictionary, in the oldest quotes in the oldest Proverbs and phrases, dogs were rarely depicted as faithful or as man’s best friend, but as vicious and aggressive hunting dogs.

This is the story of how I learned about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who had a jungle hospital in Equatorial Africa. The reverence for life for all animals, he created this idea when he was in Africa in 1913, when he first went to the hospital in the jungle.

The reverence for life came to me when my mother passed away. I was stationed in Germany. I came home to New York, and my father said, “I want you to meet this woman”. She was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. She won the 1958 Oscar for a documentary on Albert Schweitzer, who I’d heard of.

For all you animal lovers, here’s a story that many people have heard of: Francis and the Wolf.

Francis was told there’s a vicious wolf out there, killing sheep, defenseless sheep, and attacking their shepherds. So he goes out into countryside, and the wolf comes up to him, and the wolf is snarling.

He lifts his cross up. The wolf kneels down, prostrates himself, and he sees the reason for the wolf doing what it was doing.

I am out driving in my Ford Explorer
My big SUV
On this rainy day
It is raining a lot
It is warm and mild it is in the 60’s in Goshen, Ct
I just went by this awesome farmland and barn
Just so pretty around here
I saw this muddy, muddy field and
I saw this cow just tip toe out like a ballerina
To put his hoof out
To see if he was going to step out into this muddy, muddy field
He was so coated with mud
Like he was getting a mud facial
Like a mud cow-a-thon
I don’t know what you would call it

What’s that sound
The sound of my dog
Missy as she is howling and growling away
playing with her toy
Having such joy with this stuffed animal
Is the sound ferocious?
is the sound she is making an expressing
Delight
Frustration
fun
there are so many sounds we hear in life
And the meaning we put behind the sound
And the expression of the sound
I can tell she is having a lot of fun
Running around
Enjoying this toy of hers
Just having a really good time
Getting up in the day