It’s war. The donkeys versus me. I would like to think I am smarter than a donkey, but I know it isn’t really so. The donkeys are eating the barn, and I am plotting ways to stop them. I have battled with donkeys before, sometimes own, sometimes lost. I took some deep repellent out to the barn and sprayed it on the boards, and that slowed them down, but did not stop them. I am considered chicken wire, metal sheathing, hemlock boards, horse sprays that repel biting and chewing.
Round one went to the donkeys, they ate a good chunk of the barn wall. Round two to me with the deep repellent. Round three will be Ben’s arrival to help study our options. I am hoping the horse spray works. I like the chicken wire. Still, the donkeys are waiting for me, jeering at me. They can intuit moods and intentions, and I know the minute I leave the barn they start gnawing. For the barn’s sake, I will win this battle of wits. I am smarter than an ass, I am.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AMVA) is updating its 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics Handbook (avma.org/petdemo). The handbook costs $315 dollars and is one of the most detailed analyses of the nature of pet ownership and expenditures in America. The handbook reports that 36.5 per cent of households in America owned at last one dog at the end of 2011. Many households had more than one dog, and more than one dog or cat.
One figure stood out for me: In 2011 Americans spent $28 billion on veterinary expenditures for pets, a number significantly higher than the gross national product of many nations, and a time when Americans were seeing budgets slashed for teachers, school programs, libraries and social services. This number has exploded in recent years, as corporate equipment and pharmaceutical companies have entered the animal health care business.
This is an astounding figure and it reflects a number of things. Medical technology is expensive, for people and for pets. More dogs and cats are being medicated for more things, including emotional issues like depression and anxiety. Corporations have taken over the veterinary health care business. A growing part of the animal culture has also embraced the absolutist idea that animals should not die for any reason other than natural deaths, just as the human medical process is keeping Americans alive at any cost by any means. No-kill shelters are embraced all over the country, as if they are a humane or practical idea for animals. Distracted and impulsive Americans increasingly prefer to medicate pets with behavioral problems rather than choose them thoughtfully or train them well.
It has always seemed disturbing to me that the human health care system would migrate to veterinary care, yet that seems to be happening, a perhaps inevitable outcome in the Corporate Nation. Law schools are also training law students to explore veterinary lawsuits, another trend that will send veterinary costs – malpractice insurance and protective diagnoses and medications – shooting up, as they have with people health care.
It might seem like good new for dogs that people are spending billions of dollars on their health care, but I don’t think it is good news for dogs. People will spend almost anything to make themselves feel good, even when it isn’t always good for animals. Ultimately, this will lead people to avoid adopting or buying animals or treating their ailments. It is difficult to even see a vet now for less than a couple of hundred dollars in fees, medications, procedures. I took our three dogs in to see a vet last year for a routine physical examination and the bill was close to $800. And they were all healthy. This $28 billion demographic estimate does not include food, grooming, boarding, toys and dog beds.
There is to me the question of perspective as well. As dog lovers become obsessive about food medications and procedures to prolong the life the the pet, the very idea of what a pet is and what it means to and how it relates to the rest of our society is undergoing radical change, but little rational discussion. Humans are not encouraged to die the way they wish, and that is an important issue for me. I guess for my dogs as well.
My friend Pam White is an artist and photographer, blogger and insight coach – a Rennaissance woman, very gifted on many levels. Of late, she has also been helping me both with my spiritual work and with my efforts to understand and deal with fear. Yesterday, we were talking about turning the mind away from its ingrained habit of anxiety and worry, and she suggested something for the New Year that I liked – she called it a God Jar. Pam is not very squishy or woo-woo, I do what she says generally. She told me to get a jar and put my wishes and hopes for 2013 into it. Maria loved the idea also and wanted in.
So last night Maria and I had the quietest of New Year’s Eves – we read, discovered solitaire on the Ipad and Iphone (I have been searching hard for good mysteries, just got “Booksellers” by Mark Pryor) and talked. We lit some candles cut up some paper and wrote down our wishes.
Some of mine:
– To write well, take good photos.
– To be a good lover, husband and friend to my wife.
– To not have to worry about money for awhile.
– To find my strength and competence and honor both.
– To see my daughter soon.
– Happiness and success for Maria.
– For Bedlam Farm to be bought by someone who loves it.
– To find my strength.
– Stand in my truth.
– Be a good friend to my friends.
– A compassionate advocate and caretaker for my animals.
My theme for today is gratitude and appreciation. Today I am the wealthiest and luckiest person in the world. I have everything I need today. I have love, a home I love, work I love, food to eat, a sturdy Carhatt winter jacket. I am making good and true friends, taking my photos, writing my books, living my life. I am healthy and busy, making my own decisions, walking my wonderful dogs, communing with my mystical donkeys, standing in my truth, making my good stand in the world. Is there more than that for today? If that does not make me happy, then I am a greedy and shallow man.
My best moments of 2012?
Moving to my new farm.
Every day with Maria.
Publishing my first short story collection “Dancing Dogs.”
Publishing my first e-book original, “The Story Of Rose.”
Getting Red.
Learning to wallpaper, paint and polish wood.
Retrieving my soul.
Seeing my daughter happy and successful and in love.
