If there is a single project I have been working on steadily for the past 15 years, it is this: talking to animals. Studying the way they communicate with us, the way we can communicate with them. The writer Henry Beston said some years ago that we do not have a language for communicating with animals – many people believe they can, but I think it takes great care, listening and observation and in my life with dogs, donkeys, barn cats, chicken, sheep, goats and cows.

This is precisely what I have been doing every day. Maria’s presence has enhanced this research, many of you have seen the images of her communicating with the animals on the farm, we both have been working together on this, it is the most fascinating thing I have undertaken in my life with animals, I think I can contribute something meaningful to the subject.

I want to go to the next level with it, that means money and time. My wonderful camera, my Mark III 5D is having some troubles, I use it so often and in so many different conditions, it is always with me in cold, sometimes rain and snow. I don’t have two cameras, I switch lenses all day long, I see the time is drawing near when I will need a new camera, and I want a camera that will help me capture the images I need for a project called “Talking To Animals,” an e-book and paper book project. I began this when I had Elvis the steer, I learned from Orson and Rose, from goats and roosters, from dogs and donkeys. This work has flowed from Simon to Rocky, from Frieda to Red, in each case I have learned now to communicate with these animals in visible ways.

Many of you have followed this remarkable part of my life.

The camera I want – the Canon DX 1-  costs $7,000 plus the obligatory accessories, so roughly $9,000. It is fast and powerful, and will help me capture the images I need for this and all of my work, but especially this project. In the other world, I would have submitted this cost to a publisher and included it in my advance, it would have been simple. In this world, I have to raise the money myself and I don’t have that kind of money available. So after much consideration,  I am putting together a Project Funding request on Kickstarter.com, a remarkable new website that offers artists the chance to seek funding for their work via the Internet.

Directors, producers, writers and artists are raising money to fund worthy projects online – people are even funding movies there – expanding the new relationship between creatives and the public that consumes their work. Some people are at ease seeking money from the outside world, I am excited about it but also uneasy. I want to make my own way, pay for my own way, but I also recognize there are some limits to that in the new order. I want to be paid for my work – the subscriptions were my first step, so was my new and successful book tour for “Second Chance Dog”  – but not for my life. There is a big difference for me, my life is not a drama or a crisis, the world does not owe me a living for the choices I make.

But once more, as with the blog and Facebook, I have found a new tool to keep me relevant, to help me continue my work in a rapidly changing world.

I have a number good friends – artists and authors – who have argued that this is the new model for creativity, it is empowering, enabling and gives the consumers of art a chance to support artists in a very personal and direct way. That is persuasive to me, I have seen this happen through my blog. I accept this idea and will try it.

So I’m putting together a Kickstarter Project proposal which will be up on the Kickstarter site in a few days. People can contribute through a very simple Amazon billing system, if I do not reach the goal of $9,000 then no money is taken, exchanged or received. So in a way, people can decide if they think this a worthwhile project or not, once again, the process is being shared, and there are some rewards for some contributors – notecards, books.  I love the subject, I am communicating and listening to animals every day, I am putting together the foundation of an emotional language with which to talk to animals and hear them, in a sense my life’s work. And it is important. In the increasingly emotionalized world of animals, we are projecting our own thoughts and emotions onto them, we are not pausing to learn what they are really trying to tell us. This work may have saved Simon’s life and Frieda’s as well, it has helped Red evolved into an animal who can slip into every part of my life.

When the Kickstarter project is up, I’ll let you know. If it goes well, this will be my next book and e-book. I am learning to navigate the new world and find myself in the quite unnerving but wonderful position of doing things almost every day I never imagined doing just a few months ago. Let’s see what happens.