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Non-human companions
anataman
Who needs a title?Where am I? Veteran
Many people call them pets, which to my mind is a bit derogatory as they are actually non-human sentient beings. There are times when my non-human companion provides me with such love, affection and emotional comfort without making any demands of me other than to let her go out and take a pee, and I never have to explain anything to her about what I'm feeling, and if I do because I'm feeling down or low she teaches me to stop feeling sorry for myself because she doesn't really care anyway.
She is called Meg and is an English Setter and regularly causes me great pain when she chews up my daughters toys or like recently my kids new passport when it came through the letterbox, or a few Christmas presents etc. but I wouldn't change her for the world. I often think that she is a boddhisattva guiding me along the path, but that is really just a throw away comment to annoy one or two of you!
Here she is in her present incarnation, nobly sitting and calmly abiding in her naturally calm state. However, get her out in the park and she loses control and her natural instinct is to chase the squirrels and pigeons.
Does anyone else have a non-human companion that walks the path with them?
She is called Meg and is an English Setter and regularly causes me great pain when she chews up my daughters toys or like recently my kids new passport when it came through the letterbox, or a few Christmas presents etc. but I wouldn't change her for the world. I often think that she is a boddhisattva guiding me along the path, but that is really just a throw away comment to annoy one or two of you!
Here she is in her present incarnation, nobly sitting and calmly abiding in her naturally calm state. However, get her out in the park and she loses control and her natural instinct is to chase the squirrels and pigeons.
Does anyone else have a non-human companion that walks the path with them?
6
Comments
One cat does the limbo when you try to pet her. One tosses his cookies. Another makes little meows constantly as if she is mimicking human speech. The dog sneezes whenever he wants a treat and barks at cars and other dogs.
As an 8 year old I never really got over that experience, even now I am left feeling stunned by that action. I got him back though, but that is another wicked story and it doesn't involve pets! It does however involve his pellet gun that I stole from him.
I agree animals are so comforting and loyal, here's a few of mine.
Rosie (her oral hygiene is second to none) the late Sam on the decking (ex customs dog, bit crap at his job, never found me anything), Guinness on the bin and Guinness and Ally playing hide and seek they are the latest additions (@Lobster I was tempted to call them bat man and Robin with reference to your 'rescue cats comment
We also have two guinea pigs Tilly and Lilly they are funny and squeak and squeal every time they hear the chopping board come out as (no not out of fear) they know there will be some veggy treats!
At the worst (so far) time of my life, as these things happen, I discovered valuable relationships with animals, mainly because there were few humans around and I was in a cabin in rural north Idaho in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't 'well, all I have is goats to talk to . . . let's make the best of it.' Much much more than that, nuff said.
I enjoyed animals, reptiles and most insects like the next person who identifies themselves as a critter person, but it took a couple of quantum leaps about ten years ago, probably because I was falling apart. I got put back together again with some new vital necessities, and those are animal companions. I like humans, too.
I like what you said @Anataman, about 'pets' versus 'companions'. It's more like a roommate situation in my life. I live in a studio (converted garage) with a loft, about 480 square ft with an African Grey parrot, Axel and four cats. Last winter, we had a possum somewhere in the loft that grew to enormous size on all the catfood. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and hear crunchcrunchcrunchcrunch, and there she was, the size of basset hound, completely fearless. She moved out in the spring (ie, went under the back porch of the big house and had about a zillion babies) and I still see her big fat ass retreat into the shadows when I do 'last check' on all the OTHER denizens of my property at night.
The parrot has free run of the studio, which means I still can't have nice things even though my kids are grown and out. I never have all the keys on my keyboard, I share nearly every meal with him, he follows me into the bathroom and bites my toes unless I wear slippers. He has finally stopped chewing electrical cords, which he did specifically to distract me from whatever I was doing, only when he hit bare copper wire and blew off 1/4 inch from the end of his beak. If something is on a shelf, it's fate is to be thrown on the floor. If it makes kewl noises, it will be thrown and chased and thrown to generate more kewlness. I could go on -- but the point is, I can't relate to an animal as if it weren't a person, too. I have a roommate with the intelligence of a three year old human and a can opener on his face.
The cats have equal run, and five acres to catch mice and unfortunately, all the little birdies. I find cold, dead mice in my shoes at least twice a month, but usually they just leave the full GI tract on the rug in front of the sink.
Outside are ducks, geese and chickens. I'm not sure of the number in total. Not all have names but they are persons who I shelter and feed and enjoy the benefits of (eggs). Quite a few have gone to the vet. I buy them as much food at the grocery as for myself, esp in winter. They don't do what I want them to do, and they serve no purpose other than to be themselves. I do forbid procreation during the spring MOST of the time, but I can't catch every hidden nester. They are fragile and die easily and for no reason sometimes. I am shattered every single time. I wonder why I put myself through it for a day or so and then I keep doing it.
They are my 'happy thoughts', I decided. It feels . . . completely natural and right to go outside and have twenty or thirty birds come running at me (oh the guilt trips they are capable of, so I have tomatos and on-sale bread at the door). I don't know what else to say or how to say it. I most definitely am attached, sunk and screwed 100% and the suffering is terrible when something bad happens to one.
How I exist with my critters is apparently not common, as I've discovered by the reactions of other humans when they visit or listen to my home stories. I don't know why I do it except that it makes sense to me.
Whew, this could have been so much longer! I haven't said a word about the house spiders and rats living in the feed shed.
Gassho
On the other hand, the cat sits zazen with me and often will independently sit zazen on the cushions on his own.
There is a jakata tale about ravens that heard the 12 chains of dependent arising and in later lives were able to recognize the Dharma (which explains the Chinese custom of preaching the 12 chains of dependent arising to animals). I think in a secular context, the message in that fiction is that we ought to treat all sentient beings as if they were able to become enlightened-- it's a good policy for them and us.
I want a couple of rats though. I think they are wonderful little creatures.
He's kind of like having a husband minus all the same-species attraction/sex/procreation thing. We give each other space. We put up with each other. Sometimes, we've had it with each other. All we have to do is look into each others eyes, though, to remember what we are doing here
Gassho
In the summer, I'll turn up the volume and open all the doors and windows so the chickens, ducks and geese get a chance. I could install a few outdoor speakers . . .
My partner opened the door and she was off in a flash down the road (like something out of the 'water margin' one minute there the next gone).... we ran after her and a few neighbours helped to stop the traffic, she stopped to have a poo and I did a flying tackle to grab her collar but ended up on my arse in close proximity of the newly laid turd.
Anyway after my partners pulse rate had subsided and the shock of the event had worn off we took her (on a short lead) to the beach, by the look on her little face I think it may have been the first time her paws have felt sand.
She is very skinny,timid and quiet but hopefully we can fatten and cheer her up....my mind is made up, her she is ....
Dharma everywhere ;-)