Ostomy Memories Animal Love

W. C. FIELDS WAS EXPRESSING an aversion for innocence when he said: “Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad.” Fields unwittingly was touching upon the very reason that I like animals better than people: their inherent innocence. The company of a good dog or cat, in my experience, grows into a bond that is simply absent with most humans. Even watching a movie, one becomes inured to the violence between humans, of which there is often way too much, but don’t let anything happen to the dog!
Because I grew up without the company of animals, one of the side benefits of marrying my wife was that she is an animal person. I learned from her. Now, my sympathy for animals of all kinds knows no bounds. We had a neighbor in Utah who kept a bunch of dogs chained up all day; it was painful to see. He kept them for hunting season, when he went out looking for more innocent animals to kill.
Our king-sized bed often accommodates a couple of cats sleeping with us during the night. A few nights ago, I was awakened by one of them, Pipsqueak, licking my hand. This morning, once she saw that I was awake, Fancy climbed up on my chest, nose to nose, for a good morning greeting.
While animals possess mainly good qualities, we humans aren’t as pure. “Don’t overestimate,” said H. L. Mencken, “the decency of the human race.” There is a great novel about this theme: “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London. The protagonist is Buck, a big dog leading a leisurely life in California who is stolen and sold into Yukon slavery pulling a sled during the Gold Rush. There are some rough parts, where Buck learns about good and evil, but Buck triumphs. It is a superbly written novel, easy to read, and told essentially from the dog’s point of view. I doubt that W. C. Fields read it.

Hello HenryM.
Thanks again for your insight into yet another interesting concept. I have written so many rhymes about people’s relationships with their pets that it is difficult for me to choose those appropriate to your post. However, below are two which give a feeling for the pet perspective and the human one too:

Best wishes
Bill

MIRROR IMAGES : DOGGOD.
The light is now fading, our day’s at an end,
what do we see in the mirror my friend?
beyond pain and sadness of life’s misery
I see all that love which you gave to me.

                                                      B. Withers. 1990

                                                         (in Evidence)

Someone made up the word of ‘GOD’,
not knowing it reflected ‘DOG’,
yet as an image, it’s not bad
to show the love we might have had.

So, when I think about this thing,
and what a dog and god may bring,
it makes me wonder if their aim
reflects enough to be the same.

I don’t believe the lord above
has given me much lasting love,
but maybe I’m mistaken there,
and dogs are how the gods show care.

Have I been cynical too long?
Have my opinions all been wrong?
Are dog and god simply reflections
heading in the same directions?

Perhaps I have been travelling blind,
and blanked god off within my mind,
but I can’t do that with a mutt
who loves me without if or butt.
                                       B. Withers 2020
                                          

PET PERSPECTIVE.

All the things you had been taught
are likely now to come to nought.
With plans not made nor battles fought
few artifacts of life are bought.

Complexities of life are now,
immediately they make you bow.
Easy escape they don’t allow,
But follow me, I’ll show you how.

Sometimes I’m seen to sit and muse
what might have been, if I could choose
the style of life for me and you
that’s tailor-made for just us two.

There’s give and take, no thoughts of greed.
We cater to each other’s need.
I fetch slippers, whilst you me feed.
What ecstasy to stroke and read.

Freedom, fun and food galore,
we’ll romp and roll around the floor.
Then walk and talk, and walk some more,
while time and love both fill our store.

That’s the style for which I pine
and that’s the life that could be mine.
For we are both still in our prime.
What ‘WE’ could do – if ‘YOU’ had time.

                                     B. Withers 1985
                                      ( in ‘Evidence’)

My new goal in life is to come up with a post on a subject about which you have not penned a poem.  LOL

Please don't try too hard, as everytime I come across a new concept I have this compulsion to write something new. This will often take me off on a tangent to a subject that is not supposed to be my focus of attention for the books I am presently writing.

Best wishes

Bill

hmmm... now what rhymes with, 'distraction'?

Good luck with that!

Hi Henry,  I too prefer dogs to people.  I confess I am a dog person more than a cat person, even though I grew up with both, I've found, for me, the bond that develops and the mutual affection is at a deeper level.  Dogs have no malice, no enmity, they are pure.  One thing they have in common with us is their individual personalities.  My ex and I (many, many moons ago) had a border collie we named Bojangles (which just became Bo) who was at least as smart as some people I have known.  One day he injured his paw, cutting it on an oyster shell on the beach when we were living at our island home.  His paw was bandaged and he was unable to come with us on our usual walks, so as a solution we put him in the wheel barrow and brought him along.  Bo loved the wheel barrow and thought he was pretty special riding up there like some King surveying his domain.  When his paw healed, he was demoted to walking along side us as he always had.  Well, this didn't sit well with him, so he started to limp!! Bo's other little trick involved our sleeping arrangements.  He was allowed to sleep at our feet on the bed, as it was just a standard double, this was the only place he could fit.  He would wait until we were both asleep and then insinuate himself between us and gradually push his way up until he was pushing us off on either side.  One of us would eventually wake up and realize we were about to fall out of bed before it actually happened.  One night we had a huge storm, trees falling around us, it was very scary, but the scariest thing was that Bo had not returned from his daily outing (he was a free running dog on the island).  I was beside myself and couldn't sleep.  The next morning we went outside and there he was waiting quietly on the porch.  He was smart enough to find a safe place to ride out the storm instead of trying to come home in the middle of it.  I can still get emotional remembering that dog.  We are very lucky to have those relationships in our lives.  Thanks for reminding me.

All the best,

Terry

Ummm........off the top of my head.............

2 syllables:

actian, action, aktion, faction, fraction, paction, taction, traction

3 syllables:
abaction, abstraction, abstraktion, attraction, attraktion, calefaction, cinefaction, classaction, compaction, contaction, contraction, detraction, diffraction, effraction, enaction, exaction, extraction, frigefaction, group action, impaction, inaction, infraction, labefaction, nonaction, olfaction, preaction, proaction, protraction, pump action, putrefaction, rarefaction, rarefraction, reaction, reaktion, redaction, refaction, refraction, retraction, slide action, soustraction, subaction, substraction, subtraction, telaction, transaction, tumefaction

4 syllables:
abreaction, arefaction, assuefaction, benefaction, chain reaction, chylifaction, common fraction, complex fraction, compound fraction, contrafaction, counteraction, delayed action, direct action, excalfaction, human action, interaction, in full action, learned reaction, legal action, liquefaction, liquifaction, malefaction, man of action, out of action, patefaction, petrifaction, pinguefaction, plan of action, police action, proper fraction, reenaction, rubefaction, satisfaction, scene of action, simple fraction, social action, spargefaction, tepefaction, torrefaction, underaction, vitrifaction

5 syllables:
chemical action, colliquefaction, coming attraction, congelifraction, continued fraction, counterattraction, cryoextraction, decimal fraction, defence reaction, defense reaction, dissatisfaction, evasive action, immune reaction, improper fraction, insatisfaction, law of mass action, microtransaction, natural action, obstupefaction, overreaction, photoreaction, piano action, possible action, pseudoreaction, self-satisfaction, semiabstraction, startle reaction, strong interaction, unsatisfaction, weak interaction, x-ray diffraction

6 syllables:
affirmative action, allergic reaction, capillary action, chemical attraction, chemical reaction, conditioned reaction, conversion reaction, impossible action, insulin reaction, magnetic attraction, military action, nuclear reaction, party to the action, physical attraction, uterine contraction, wasserman reaction

7 syllables:
accord and satisfaction, anxiety reaction, carrying into action, conditional reaction, endothermic reaction, exothermic reaction, party to the transaction

8 syllables:
fundamental interaction, gravitational attraction, law of action and reaction, nuclear fusion reaction, photochemical reaction, thermonuclear reaction, type i allergic reaction

9 syllables:
gravitational interaction, physiological reaction

10 syllables:
electromagnetic interaction, hypersensitivity reaction

Seriously, you gotta love the internet!!

later,

bob

Right on Terry!  I've had a few dogs now and they were each special in their own way.......and as a whole.  I guess the upside to the sadness of losing a dog after 10 years or so is that you then get to have another unique loving animal in your life.  Hmmm.......imagine if you could get a new husband or wife every 10 years or so.........on second thought.....maybe we best not go there.........

Great post Henry!!!!  Thanks.

;0)

bob 

In the city where I live there is salinity and a shortage of water and lawns are difficult to maintain, so it is a problem where to bury dogs. As all dog lovers know before you know it dogs pass on and die. In the humid climate here about 14 years is considered good.I have a small burial plot for dogs but it filled up fast as some friends were asking me to bury their pets there. Eventually, we started burying them on two vacant plots near us that belonged to one of the largest landowners in the land and an ex chief minister. Somehow word got back to him and at a reception he pointedly asked me :" I hear you bury cats and dogs on my properties ", when I didn't reply quickly enough, he was such a gentleman that he laughed it off, was a great dog lover himself and had the best German Shepherds and Pointers I have ever seen. One of his Shepherds received the best in show prize from Stanley Dangerfield the international judge.

Bow....I'm glad that ended well for you........I was thinking it was going to go the other way.  Never had one last 14 years........I think our "dog food" really isn't "fit for a dog".  One day after reading all the "ingredients" in the dog food I was feeding Rover I decided to sit down and research every one.  What we feed our pets isn't "food" by any stretch of the imagination.  Not even close. The more you learn the more disgusting it gets.  What the hell have we become as a society to do this kind of crap.  And human "food" is hardly any better.  What a truly F*&KED UP world we live in.  

later,

bob

Yes, Bob that could have turned nasty but he knew me. At the wedding of a good friend, he was the witness for the groom and I for the bride for the signing of the nuptial documents. I was slightly late and apoligized saying that I was late for my own wedding! A English lady settled here for many years gave me a recipe for dogs that apart from meat has lentils(protein), rice and vegetables in it. You freeze everything in packets and serve them together. She had two dogs both of them a picture of good health, made her own dog biscuits too. I did not agree with the vegetables but she was doing something right. You are right about the deficiencies in dog food, there are some good ones but they cost an arm and a leg if you have a number of dogs. A friend gives his dog a whole raw chicken, bones and all, says the bones do no harm when raw, they splinter only when cooked. Some folks swear by home cooked meals for dogs. How do you feed your dogs? I can send you the English lady's recipe if you want. Best wishes.

Hi Bow,

  After researching the ingredients in dog food......and becoming thoroughly disgusted and feeling a bit guilty for feeding that crap to my pooch......I started making my own dog food.  Initially I just made a bit more of whatever I was eating that day and Rover got whatever I ate.  Then to be a bit more methodical I decided to dedicate about an hour or two every month to making my own dog food.  It's actually very easy and MUCH cheaper than store bought food......and it is made of real grade A beef, rice, potatoes, chicken and anything else I want to use to spice it up a bit.  But nothing I wouldn't eat, nothing artificial or any fillers.  I then do as your friend does, I put in small bags and freeze, only defrosting and keeping the bag I'm using in the fridge.  To my surprise a month's worth of real quality human grade dogfood only costs about a third of what the processed crap they call dog food in the stores costs.  And I usually end up making some big bowls or rice, mashed potatoes and meat for myself to have during the week.  So win-win.  There are some "good" dog foods out there now, with "good" really meaning better ingredients, but they're all cooked until they're really nothing but filler, then the "nutrients" are added to that overcooked crap.  It's so ridiculous when you think about it.........they use better ingredients for better nutrients, but then cook the nutrients out of it to the point that they have to add them back as artificial nutrients.  No wonder a bog of dog crap food costs upwards of 50 bucks.  Between the energy used and the packaging and transportation costs you're probably getting $5 worth of meat in a $50 bag of crap dog food.  It's one of those things that when explained to someone would sound too stupid to be true. 

  Maybe my pooch won't live a day longer on "my" dog food, but when she does go I'll at least have piece of mind that I did everything I could to give her a happy and healthy life.  And that's pretty priceless to me.

  Oh, I might as well mention this.........since deciding not to feed my monster anyting I wouldn't eat.......I always taste the dog "treats" I give her when we go for walks or do training.....like Milk Bones, or Snausages...those things.  Most taste like pure crap and go right in the round file.  But a few of the buffalo jerkies and such aren't too bad.  Hey, it's good to know if you ever get hungry and only have a pocket full of dog treats!!

Bon Appetit!

regards,

bob

regards,

bob

Gosh, so many words! I was walking my spanial this morning trying to imagine what it was like for humans, pre language, (about 100k years ago, they say), with no words to play with its difficult to imagine what was going on in the human brain, were we guided by pure emotion? Or was there some other way of conceptualising the world which we are no longer in touch with due to its replacement by words?... I once had an angry lorry driver rush up to the car i was drivng home from college in, thinking he wanted to tell me something i lowered the window and said, whats up mate? Whereapon he started trying to punch me in the face! I leaned back so that he had to bring himself down to reach me, I then punched him in the mouth, splitting his lips and ending the attack.... The point is, I never had to find words to deal with this episode, it was like I had been overtaken by instinct for about two seconds!  I guess it was affirmative action, a defence reaction AND gravitational interaction!

"Gravitational interaction"... a good term for it.

Pirrip......that's an interesting thought! I'd think that verbal communication isn't the only form of communication, as we understand what folks mean by interpreting gestures as much as hearing what's being said. Language obviously adds detail and specifics to the conversation, but we do frequently communicate with each other without speaking. But it sure must have been a strange, yet wonderfully silent world way back when. 

Regards,

Bob