Wednesday, April 27, 2005

I spotted her body as we drove out today. It's been there a long time, probably since she went missing ten or eleven days ago. I don't know why I couldn't see it before. No nonhuman animal did this. I saw a clean hole in her side, another between her shoulders. I took a shovel and buried her not far from where she lay. I memorialized Yoda along with her. She was a very good cat. I was there when she was born. I watched her grow up. She had Leo and Ted in my pantry. She was the only cat to come out in the field with us when we had to put Polly Llama down, and the only among us to do ceremony: she danced all through the sagebrush the entire time. I used to sing "Still Gracie After All These Years" whenever she came around. Today I sang "Amazing Grace." And I finally cried. And I'm still crying. 3:21:58 PM    comment []

Oh! and before I forget (and before it's too late) please please take a listen to this week's free broadcast at New Dimensions (http://www.newdimensions.org/listen-now/programofweek.html). It's program number 3075 and the guest is Temple Grandin. From the site: Dr. Temple Grandin, a high functioning person with autism, has spent a lifetime empathizing with animals, working with farmers, ranchers, large corporations like McDonalds and Burger King, helping them to better understand animals and their behavior in order to make their care more humane. "Autism," she argues, "closely mimics the way animals perceive the world. It is a world without language and full of pictures." Indeed, she asserts that animals are autistic savants whose intelligence is unseen by most people. Temple Grandin is considered to be one of the most celebrated and effective animal advocates on the planet. She has revolutionized animal movement systems and spearheaded reform of the quality of life-and death-for the world's agricultural animals: Grandin Livestock Systems works with McDonald's and other large corporations to monitor the conditions of animal facilities worldwide. She is associate professor at Colorado State University and is the author of Thinking in Pictures (Vintage 1996) and Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Scribner 2005). She can be challenging to listen to, but what she says is so important. 2:10:56 PM    comment []

Today I will mail my package to Great Britain--two days past deadline, but for $6.70, not $23. I went to three post offices and finally had to go online and print out the rates and regulations myself to show them, but we'll get it in the mail come what may, and with the correct postage. Steady breeze. Cool. Enormous white clouds coming up over the Warners from the east again, and heavy black ones down from the north. We have a pocket of brightness here for now. The chimes clang. In the sky next door the hawk papa soars and watches over his nest. And today the pear tree in the courtyard finally blossomed. It's been bursting at the seams for a month. I'll bet that feels so good... 1:54:43 PM    comment []