7 July

Rocky. Our Pony Soon. A Lucky Pony

by Jon Katz
Our Pony Soon

Rocky will be our pony in a couple of weeks – we are closing on the new house in late July – and are looking forward to caring for him. We visited him today. His family has given us permission to do some things for him – we are brush-hogging the pasture around him, bringing him a water tub so he won’t have to walk to the stream and once we own the house, will build a new Pole Barn for him as soon as we can. We will also empty out one of the stalls in the standing barn for him to use if he wants shelter from the sun or the rain.

He has lived in that pasture for 15 years, just as he lives now, and he seems healthy and alert. Maria is very attached to him, and he is a lucky pony, I think. We are committed to making his last few years as comfortable as they can be for a blind 34-year-old Appaloosa pony.

Isn’t life wonderfully strange? I never imagined when I pulled into his driveway more than a year ago that this pony would lead Maria and I to this new place. Magical helpers. He is no fool. If I were a blind 34-year-old pony, I would pray that Maria Wulf would come and love me. I made that wish myself once, and it turned out very well.

7 July

Diary: Training Red At Three Weeks. You Get The Dog You Need

by Jon Katz
Red At Three Weeks

Sunday marks three weeks of life with Red. I have never had a dog quite like him, nor have I ever had a dog who slipped into my in so many ways so quickly. Karen Thompson’s descriptions of Red were thorough and accurate. He is very eager to please, and eager to find his place in the world. I knew Red loved work, but I did not grasp how loving or people-oriented he is. I know an accomplished  therapy dog trainer and I am thinking of having him evaluated.

Here is my report after three weeks. I am finally learning patience, clarity and have developed some good communications skills after living with my dogs and other animals for a good while. Red has no behavioral problems. He is housebroken, adapted to living inside of a house. His work with the sheep is stellar, appropriate and quite amazing.  He is learning to respect the road, and stops at my “no street” command. He sometimes anticipates me and breaks a “stay,” but we are working on that. Red has adapted to riding around in cars, to going into offices, bookstores, farmstands, offices. He keeps very close to me, but answers to Maria. He needs no socializing, he could not be more social. He ignores the donkeys, chickens, barn cats and treats the old sheep gently.

It took two days to housebreak Red, about average for me with my dogs.

Things to work on: he is a little grabby around food. He sometimes puts his paw up on people when he greets them (I have learned that many people love this and encourage it, which makes training difficult).  I am teaching him the “off” command. He has already learned not to approach us while we are eating, or to come near the dinner table if there is food. We ignore him completely.  He is beginning to challenge Lenore to play. She has not yet accepted. He is very easy around Frieda, and she with him. I am  teaching him to wait for me before I go out the door, rather than have him rush ahead. He is learning how to climb stairs, something that panicked him at first. He still takes them four steps at a time, but is slowing down. For the first time, he will nap in another room than the one I am in, a sign he is getting comfortable here.

Red is very bright. He leaves me alone when I am at the computer, or sitting and reading. He walks reliably off-leash, never running after trucks, cars, or animals in the woods. He is not drinking from the toilet bowl anymore. He walks no more than 20 feet ahead of me, then turns and waits (above). He walks easily with the other two dogs. He spends the night in his crate – and some time after herding –  and I think I will keep it that way. He likes it, is comfortable there, and it gives him a chance to settle, something border collies always need. Red will take me many places. He is a spirit dog, a guide, a magical helper, a lifetime dog. Too soon to know, but I suspect he will be a book.

I do not believe either in separation anxiety or grieving, despite their epidemic diagnosis among companion animals. I think they are mostly projections of human issues. Red has shown no signs or separation anxiety or grieving for his former owner, to whom he was famously devoted. And if he went back to Karen Thompson, he would fine in a day or so. That is the wonder of dogs and something it is important for me to remember in a time of runaway emotionalizing of adaptable animals.

I am learning that Red was treated harshly at different points in his life and I see that in his response to even the slightest irritation, or the sight of a stick or crook. I will learn more about this when Karen is ready to tell me. Couldn’t be happier with a dog or love him more. He is already a media hound too, and loves the camera.

You get the dog you need.

7 July

Loving Work (Questions For Me)

by Jon Katz
Loving Work

I avoid politics whenever possible. For me, politics are no longer politics but a kind of ideological marketing and argument process that has nothing whatsoever to do with me or my beliefs. I do not wish to be on the left or the right, and there is really no other place. The corporate culture has eviscerated politics in the same way it is destroying media, culture, security, the economy, home ownership,  medicine, the law and work.

Companies are always asking if they have too many workers, but nobody is asking if there are too many economists. I say yes. Economists have decided that loving your work or your employees is no longer efficient in the new and global economy of scale in the same way they have decided that family farms are no longer efficient enough to sustain or protect. For many generations, American business advanced the notion of the contract between employer and employee. Loyalty, hard work and commitment were rewarded with security, advancement and the opportunity to end one’s life in dignity and safety. The economists seem to have forgotten that the economy did pretty well with that idea for a long time.

In “Death Of A Salesman,” Arthur Miller presciently sat a big change coming, yet even he didn’t imagine the cruelty, fear, dislocation, callousness and brutality of the modern corporate workplace, in which human beings are routinely discarded, traumatized and poorly paid. How many people do you know who love their work? I used to know a lot.  I have seen many cows on many dairy farms that have more secure lives than most American workers. Like most real issues, you will not see this discussed in our political campaigns. No politician can afford to raise that issue any longer. Look where their money comes from?

Watching Red work, I think of the idea loving work. I left CBS a generation ago because I came to see there was no longer any security in working for other people in America. My idea of security has evolved. Today, and for me, it means doing work I love. I will hang on to that to the very end of my life. That is line for me, the space I won’t cross. Many people tell me that is not possible for them. I don’t know what to say to that. People told me it wasn’t possible for me either. It is possible. It just isn’t easy.

I believe one of the many connections I have with Red is that we both love our work. I try and to my work the same way he tries to do it. With passion, intensity, commitment and pride. He inspires me. Loving work is so important. For me, it is, along with love, the point of life.

___

New thing. On Sundays I am posting a “Questions For Me?” topic on Facebook. I get many questions each week about my work, my books, my photography, the dogs, donkeys, other animals on the farm. I saw on Jenna Woginrich’s website that she pots “questions” topics from time to time, so I’m trying out the idea. I cannot answer all of the questions I get and I don’t try. It’ s just not a good way for me to spend my time. So I’ll try this and see how it works. Sundays, if it turns out to be worthwhile. On my Facebook Page (link above.)

7 July

The Webs We Weave: The Real Artists

by Jon Katz

The Real Artists

Sometimes, it’s good to be reminded who the real artists are and where the real art is. I love spider web photos, but to get them, there has to be dew, it has to be early (before the sun burns off the dew) and the light has to be behind the web. Without the light, nature’s own spotlight in the gallery, we rarely even see webs. Like everyone else, I take this amazing artistry and geometrical precision for granted. Small miracles.

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