I grew up in Providence, R.I.. and lived in cities for most of my life – New York City ( three times), Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Baltimore.
Twenty years ago, I bought a cabin in upstate New York. Five years later, I bought a farm. Eight years ago, I moved to another farm and married Maria.
I love where I live and plan on dying up here.
I can’t go back to cities, even though I love them. I need to live in an open and green space with animals all around me, wherever I do. I need to live in nature; I need animals to be a part of what I see and do.
I love their calm, their stoicism, their adaptability. They do what they have to do to survive, but they are never pointlessly cruel, as we are.
Animals bring so much to our lives; I believe human beings are broken without animals in their lives.
Sadly, our animal rights movement seems bent on removing them from our lives and the planet rather than finding ways to keep them with us. And they are lavishly funded by so-called animal lovers who have lost perspective.
This morning, I went to pick up my car at the dealer; it needed some work. On the way home in Vermont, I passed s pasture with two beautiful horses out in the sun and the cold.
I pulled over to watch them and take their photo. The wind nearly blew me off my feet, but the horses didn’t seem to notice it.
I don’t wish to live without scenes like this ever again; I need this for my life to be whole. I am fortunate to have a partner who feels the same way.
Blessedly, I can now also take pictures of them and share them with people who can’t be here to see what I see.
Seeing cows, cattle, sheep, horses in pastures used to be a common sight, and I still see it sometimes where I live and very much in Ireland and Scotland. There is a farm near us that raises bison, we love seeing them out in the fields. I agree, without connection to animals human beings can lose much of their humanity and we are impoverished. There is SO much wilderness and wildlife where I live on Vancouver Island. Even in the towns we see deer, so many birds, lots of bald eagles and the sea is full of seals, whales, humpbacks, orcas, dolphins, squid and many many creatures.
horses in a pasture are always a reason to stop, thank you for sharing them.
Jon…
With your help, I better understand the differences between pets and farm animals. We don’t encounter farm animals too much, anymore.
But about (14) years ago, we received Hazy, an Australian Cattle Dog mix, from the family of a male abuser. As a result, she won’t get over being easily startled around me. Otherwise, she is trusting and even outgoing. She is good with visitors if we accept them, but growls for strangers at the door.
She is sometimes tentative, but really “smart” when she wants to be. She recognizes the key times of the day (not in clock time, of course): Our wakeup time, her meal times, and times for her walks.
We don’t communicate using verbal language. But other forms of non-verbal communication seem to meet her needs. She knows her non-verbal cues: When the food is coming, when to take our evening walk, when to ride to the mailbox, and when go into the yard. In fact, she usually tells us about the yard, by standing by the outside door. We never trained her for that.
When we are running late, she lets us know. For late evening walks, she sits near my office door and whines. For late meals, she raises up and peers across the kitchen counter where her food is prepared.
She recognizes the gesture of pointing, and responds to the direction of the finger, instead of the finger, itself. (We think that some dogs cannot not do this.)
Sometimes when she wants acknowledgement, she will just brush against me until I recognize her. And other times, I will pet her and say something nice. We both appreciate companionship.
These domestic behaviors are added to the protective traits of a herder: when coyotes approach us during our walk, she surges ahead to discourage them.
But Hazy will always be a dog. Several months ago, she discovered an outside door and wandered off. We spent late night hours until finally locating her.