4 June

The Bedlam Farm Warriors: Guess Who’s Coming To The Open House Next Week?

by Jon Katz
Bedlam Farm Warriors Roughing Up Their Coach: Coming To The Open House

I never imagined to be the sponsor or cheerleader behind any kind of sports team, the only sport I was ever good at was serial book reading. Every gym teacher was horrified by me, and my father badgered me endlessly to become an athlete, eventually giving up when one of his man-making hard balls hit me in the forehead and knocked me down.

So here I am, a soccer team composed entirely of recent refugee and immigrants to the United States has unanimously voted to name itself the “Bedlam Farm Warriors,” and put an image or patch of my dog Red on its jerseys. I am buying the jersey’s, but I had no idea any of this madness was to follow.

I pleaded for a name change, but was unanimously ignored.

The new jersey’s will be ordered tomorrow, since the name of my farm is on them, I am paying for them and accepting no donations. There is some good news here, the soccer team won a game last Thursday by a score of 3 to 2, they are practicing hard and on a roll. As their unofficial George Steinbrenner, I am going to a game this Thursday in Albany to cheer them on, maybe second guess their coach Ali on soccer strategy.

Maybe I’ll buy some cigars and leak some stories to the sports media.

I am also happy to report that the entire soccer team is coming to the Spring Bedlam Farm Open House this Saturday, that will ensure a lively time. I am delighted they are coming. I hope Ali (Amjad Abdullah Mohammed) will consider giving a talk about his work as a coach/driver/teacher at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center in Albany, New York, home of the Bedlam Farm Warriors (really?).

I also delighted that a van of residents from the Mansion Assisted Care Facility in Cambridge, N.Y., where Red and do our therapy work together, will also be coming to the Open House as honored guests.

The Open House is on Saturday and Sunday of this week, 11 to 4. Maria’s increasingly interesting and popular art show is a big draw, so is Red herding the sheep, Fate running in circles, and the ever carrot-hungry donkeys. Sunday, Farrier Ken Norman is coming to trim the donkeys’ hooves.

I love seeing Maria in her studio for days getting things ready, she has a great idea for pulling in gifted artists with interesting ideas. I always thought of the Open Houses as a celebration of Maria’s art, and this has turned out to be true.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that the dogs, donkeys and Maria’s art are the big draws, but I will be happy to conduct sheep-herding demos and sign copies of my new book, “Talking To Animals.” This Open House feels like much fun. And the soccer team, my peeps, are coming. They are great people, and I love Ali like a brother. More, I guess.

There is a lot to see and do at the Open Houses – poetry readings, talks, great affordable art, warm and interesting people. We celebrate our lives together and the art of rural life. Dairy Farmer and junk artist Ed Gulley and his wife Carol are  coming with a friendly cow and some of his striking sculpture pieces and wind chimes.

It’s getting better and better all the time, I am very pleased the soccer team is coming back for another visit, the first of many. Open House. Details here.

4 June

How I Get A Dog, Cont: Planning For Leroy. Getting Prepared.

by Jon Katz

Getting a dog is a serious thing, for me, and for many animals, it is a matter of life and death, both literally and in terms of the quality of their lives.

When we make mistakes, they usually pay for it.

I’ve gotten dogs in all sorts of different ways –  from shelters, rescue groups, breeders, off the street. I believe the best way to get a dog is to be thoughtful, thorough and knowledgeable.

And to listen to yourself, to imagine the kind of dog you want and why and go out and look for him or her, anywhere you can find them. Only you know what that dog is, and you are absolutely entitled to get the dog you want, that is the dog you will love and learn from.

If you can rescue one, that is a kindness. If you need to buy one, follow your heart, not somebody else’s arrogance.

Usually, when I get a dog, and lately, it is like George Patton plowing through France, intensely and with meticulous care and planning. And with great determination.

I have done this often enough to have made many mistakes, and there is no blame in making mistakes but great shame in  repeating them.

One mistake is to listen to people who tell you there is only one way to get a dog, and they know what it is for you.

They are not your friend or the dog’s. Another mistake is to make the bringing of a dog into your home a moral statement to the world about your nobility, rather than the dog that is the right soul mate. That’s a lazy and selfish way to get a dog.

Another mistake is grab a dog impulsively, because it is cute, because you saw it in a movie, because somebody is circulating a cute photo on the Internet, or because you saw it in a store window at the mall.

And then this: Because someone is guilt tripping you or bullying you. Friends don’t do that, neither do people who care about you.

Dogs deserve better than humans, but they seem to be stuck with us, so I try to figure out what they need as well as what I need, and I try to learn as much about them and/or their breed as I can. I come up with a plan, I try to be ready for them when they come.

Yesterday, I went and got a crate – not plastic but wire, so it’s cooler. Boston Terrier’s have short noses, being cool matters in the summer. My dogs spent some of every day in crates for at least the first six months they are with me. I feed them there and put them there when I need or want quiet. They learn to go within themselves in crates, they are pack animals, they feel safe and secure there. Puppies need that.

This week, I have been poring through website and articles and studies and online forums about the Boston Terrier breed, as I am about to get Leroy in three weeks and will then be responsible for him. The portrait of this breed is becoming clear. Lots of personality, lots of confidence, lots of energy and love. Some respiratory concerns, some allergy issues.

One woman was posting about what high energy dogs they are, how hers are all ball addicts and drive her mad in the house.  She spoke of this as if it was the funniest and cutest thing.I am always struck at how people dismiss behavioral problems as something that is adorable.

She asked me if I was prepared for that. I answered that I don’t allow balls in my house, or any kind of playing. We do that outside. And I have had a long streak of addictive and manic border collies (and some energetic Labs). They were and are all quiet and calm in the house, they respect my need for quiet when I work.

The BT owner didn’t reply to that, but then told me her dogs never stop running like mad through her house,  just like Fate around the sheep. It was like a circus in their, she told me, and again, it seemed like a hilarious thing to her. I may be losing my sense of humor, but it didn’t seem like a funny thing to me. I would not like it.

How would I deal with that, she asked? I answered that Fate never runs anywhere in the house,  it is not permitted. If she gets the slightest bit obnoxious, she gets a treat and a trip to the crate.  Except for greeting guests with too much enthusiasm (she pays no attention to me when I come in the house), she is quite a Lady inside, she has never run around in my house, nor would I allow or encourage it.

The Terrier owner didn’t respond to that either. She must have thought me dull and joyless.

So what am I to make of this? Am I about to get my comeuppance and report back in a few months that I have little ball addicts and manic maniacs running through the farmhouse? Or can I stick to my training philosophy and execute a different theory and plan? I have one.

Our dogs become what we need them to be, what we permit them to be.  People love to reinforce or accept obnoxious behaviors and then blame it on the dog. Aren’t they just the most difficult creatures? But dogs live to please us, that is the genetic secret to their success. Humans are the most ruthless and destructive of all living things, we will kill and savage any other living thing for money or sport. Dogs have done so well – unlike raccoons – because they sense what we need and can often give it to us.

We just have to want and expect it.

Boston Terriers literature is much like border collie literature. The first six months to a year are critical in teaching calm and obedience. They need to know how to nothing as well as everything. Crates are invaluable, so is human demeanor. If you don’t throw the ball in the house, and there is no ball in the house, then they can’t drive you crazy chasing balls, right? This idea is invariably met with blank and uncomprehending stares.

Nobody wants to hear it. Hardly anyone wants to do it.

Few dog owners know that dogs are not playing when they are playing. Usually, they are learning to hunt, or honing their hunting skills.  They are getting aroused and excited. That is not something you really want to push too far in a dog. That was invaluable information for dogs when they lived in the wild. They are cranking up their prey drive, the hunt and kill instincts that exist in varying degrees in all dogs. (Some of it has bred out of border collies and retrievers.)

It makes dog lovers very happy when they see dogs playing, it makes them feel good. Adult dogs who get exercise and attention do not need it.

Puppies need playing to socialize themselves and develop their personalities.  I will look for dogs for Leroy to play with until he is about three or four months old, and then I will never do that again. He will get plenty of toys out in the yard, and things to chew on inside.

Adult dogs generally do not need playing, it usually just brings up their arousal and play drive instincts, and primarily delights their humans.  People also think it tires them out, but the truth is, it just usually gets them excited.

That’s the thing about dogs. It is most often about what we need, not what they need. The last place on earth I would bring Leroy or Fate or Red or any Lab I have owned is a dog park. They are seminars for pack craziness for dogs in many, if not most cases. If you want your dog to run happily with packs, do not expect him to sit quietly in your living room.

Trainers say this about border collies (I suspect it is true of Boston Terriers as well): One time is an adventure, twice is an addiction. Be careful about what  you teach them to do.

Red has never chased a ball in his life, one reason he is so supernaturally calm and poised, and focused on his work. He has a full and rich life, he has no need of balls to chase. His life is quite full.

Fate is welcome to chase balls in the yard, bury bones, toss furry things in the air. I rarely, if ever, throw balls for her, and she gets tons of exercise and is in wonderful shape. She is welcome to run around the sheep until her tongue is hanging off the ground, and she usually gets two or three good walks in the woods a day.

Every now and then, she will bring a stuffed animal to me, and every now and then, I will throw it once or twice. Then we both move on.

She doesn’t need more, and she doesn’t get more.

She certainly is not going to disrupt my life or work by bringing balls to me while I read or work and panting or whining and jumping until I respond. I have seen more Labs ruined by excessive ball throwing than any other thing, I would do it for five or ten minutes a day, and then stop and always vary our activities. Labs don’t need more prey drive, and neither do Boston Terriers or border collies, they are not going to do much hunting or killing, especially in the house.

And trainers know that too much prey drive in the wrong dog can be dangerous.

Leroy and Fate can have a good time outside, and then, not for too long. Sometimes, we love our dogs so much we can’t resist making them happy, or at least what we see as being happy. Sometimes less is more, sometimes less is love.

My contract with dogs is simple. We work together, as in sheep and walks and therapy work. In the house we are all quiet and still, respectful of one another. I work at home, that is not negotiable. I give them the fullest and best possible lives.

I see that the online owner testimonials vary wildly about Boston Terrier’s, as they do about border collies.

Some of them are calm and stately, others are manic and obsessive and never still.

I believe I have the most to do with that, not the dog. A dog that cannot learn to be still or calm is not a dog for me to accept or one I wish to live with. Dogs reflect us, they sense what we want and need

If my dog is racing around the house like a ball addict, that is my doing, not his. Laughter and yelling and attention are powerful re-inforcers  for behaviors in dogs that we do not want. A dog is just as happy when you keep yelling at them to get off as they are when you are praising them. They live by attention.

When I come in or out of the house, there is no fuss, no shrieking or hugging or excitement, the dogs barely notice it. Dogs are great followers of tradition.

If you never leave food on the kitchen counter for six months, they will never go there to look for it. Fate grabbed a hamburger once, and for the next year, there was never any food left there, and now, we leave hamburger and other food on the counter, she never even looks at it. We never yelled at her or stared at the counter, we didn’t make a big deal out of it, we just created a new tradition.

Keeping food away from puppies and feeding them only from their bowls is a simple thing to do, it brings many rewards.

I believe Leroy will not be chasing balls and racing around in the house, that will not happen, and if it does, I will certainly say so and write about it. It will mean I messed up. I am not afraid to fail, which is a good thing, as I do it all the time. I learn so much from my many mistakes.

My readings this week about Boston Terriers reassure me that this is a good breed for me now, a good choice for us. They are loyal, affectionate, trainable, responsive to people. They love children and the elderly. They love to be touched and sit on sofas. But I will need to teach this dog to be centered and very calm, especially around therapy work. I will set that tone from the beginning.

But I won’t follow other people’s stereotypes and descriptions too closely. We are all different, we all get the dogs we want and need.

I imagine Leroy and Maria will adore one another, as they are already beginning to do. I picture Leroy sitting in Maria’s studio in winter in his own crate, snoring loudly, rushing outside from time to time to chase Fate around.

The descriptions I was reading are the perfect descriptions for a therapy dog, and that will be an important focus of Leroy’s life, I will begin his training the day after I bring him home. That is sacred work for me and my dog, and I take it seriously.

There, he will learn to be calm and careful, to respond to need and attention, as Izzy did and Red has. He will not need  to know how to chase any balls in the house or the Mansion.

4 June

For Florence Walrath

by Jon Katz
For Florence Walrath

When we moved to our new home, the second Bedlam Farm, the only flowers growing were some beautiful Irises, the only flowers left in the garden of Florence Walrath, who was 104 when she died. We have tended these flowers lovingly and carefully in her memory and honor.

She was a proud, strong, independent person, sometimes feared, always admired and respect in our community. She suffered a lot and gave a lot. When I meet her, she was 102, I stopped to take a photograph of her collapsed barn and old pony, Rocky. She told me she was deaf and he was blind, “we are just riding it out together.”

Florence was a horsewoman, a lifelong rider and lovers of horses. But she was no softie. Rocky lived alone out in the pasture for 15 years with few fences, little or no fences and not too much attention. He fared very well. He was known for being difficult with everyone but Florence. He loved Maria, and she loved him back.

We talked sometimes, but not for long and not about too much.  She was struggling to stay in the house, made possible only by the dedication of her family.

When she died, she was 104 and Maria and I, who had been stopping by for months to help care for Rocky, looked through the windows and and fell in love with her sturdy, simple but highly efficient farmhouse.

The Irises are tough and tall and quite beautiful, just like she was. We are grateful to her, she led us to this house and we love being here. On the eve of our Open House, next Saturday and Sunday, we think of her and will keep the Irises  with love and care in her spirit.

4 June

My Statement On Terror: The RISSE $1 Dollar Campaign

by Jon Katz
Give A Dollar To Risse

I don’t tend to make statements on Facebook or Twitter, I prefer to make them with my life, I have no need to announce them to the world. A new task for the Army Of Good.

Today, I feel I do wish and need to make a statement, about the terror attacks throughout Europe and the Middle East and also about the need to speak truth to power and send a message to the many good refugees and immigrants in our country that they are welcome, cared for and trusted.

I am going to send $1 to the hard-working people at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center based in Albany, N.Y. Last year at this time, during the dawn of this hateful period in our history, someone burned down the RISSE headquarters and offices. RISSE offers learning and day care for refugee and immigrant children and adult classes for their parents and familes.

This year, I hope they receive a different message at RISSE, a shower of small donations, coming like cherubs from the sky.

If like-minded people reading this send RISSE $1, they will be reminded of the true brave and generous spirit of Americans, the real America, not the fake one they keep seeing on television. It is simple to send $1 to RISSE, they accept major credit cards and Paypal and all donations are tax-deductible.

You are welcome to send $5 or even $10 or more, but the purpose of the donations is to let them know how many of us there are and how committed we are to the idea of a just and tolerant and welcoming America. I think $1 is a good safe start for many people.

I will continue to pass along fund-raising requests on behalf of RISSE and especially the 100 children they are helping and teaching in their overwhelmed classrooms.

I have been blessed to meet many refugees and immigrants in recent months, they are not here to harm us, steal our jobs or services. Many have braved great dangers to come here, and the warm and honest refugees and immigrants I have met want nothing more than I want or you want: to live in the land of the free and the brave,  be good citizens, find meaningful work and raise their children in safety.

Had they been left behind and unable to come here, most of them and their children would have perished, often in  horrible ways.  Many of their family members have been left behind, left in peril by the new immigration polices of our government.

Today, our President further blackened our name and outraged many political and community leaders in England, who are working hard for harmony and justice as well as security. Leaders of both parties there have condemned his statements and are urging the Queen to cancel his upcoming state visit.

In one of his several angry and hateful tweets today, he accused the much-respected mayor of London, who is a Muslim, of being soft on terrorism and politically incorrect by urging Londoners to remain calm as they see a vastly increased police presence on the London Streets tomorrow.

You can read the full statements of the mayor of London and the President of the United States here. You don’t need to take anyone else’s word for it. Words do speak for themselves, there is such a thing as truth. And compassion.

I do not tell other people what to do or preach and lecture. If you share my feelings about sending RISSE a message today, you can do so quickly and easily by going here. I understand that there seem to be few universal truths in America right now, and I will continue to respect those differences.

I hope the people reading this will embrace this campaign to ask people who believe in an open and compassionate country to send a dollar to RISSE to show them how so many of us feel. As always, I hope you follow your own conscience.

4 June

My Country Tis Of Thee, Sweet Land Of Bigotry?

by Jon Katz
Sweet Land Of Bigotry?

Here at the farm, I sat in the garden and, in silence, held the new London victims in the light and thought of them.

Then, I saw some of the hatred and fear expressed afterwards by so many people eager to exploit their suffering and loss and spread as much rage and panic as possible. I’m thinking especially of our President, who disgraced our wonderful country and spoke to the worst in us at a time when our leaders desperately need to call out our best.

I’m not sure which saddened or sickened me more, but I suppose that awful honor must go to the dead and injured. I see us as a land of liberty, not bigotry.

I choose not to be a bigot. Everyone else must make up their own minds about what they choose to be, and everyone else must take responsibility for how they respond. I am happy with what I see in my mirror..

Bigot, like sexist or left and right, is one of those words tossed around quite a bit, often without context or meaning. I looked it up in several places, but the Mirriam-Webster definition was the simplest and most unequivocal:

“Big-ot-ry:” noun. “Intolerance towards those who hold different options from oneself.

Bigot – A person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.” Perhaps there is such a thing now as “fake” definitions, but I think this one is clear and true.

I have no miraculous words to share to tell other people how to feel in the face of such awful, relentless, divisive and disturbing news, day after day, week after week, month after month. We all have to cope with this new and ugly reality in our own way, we all have to find our own ways of staying ground and whole within ourselves.

These are good and loving people, they have not come her to do us harm but to live meaningful lives in freedom and safety and to join our great experiment, we invented the idea of a popular democracy.

One of my ways is to re-commit myself to the cause of the refugees and immigrants I have been meeting with and getting to know these past few months. After all of this hatred and rage, the Pompanuck retreat for the refugee and immigrant soccer team from RISSE – the refugee and immigrant support group based in Albany, N.Y.

The Army Of Good has sent more than $1,000 for these 16 kids and four adults to spent most of three days at this beautiful retreat and farming center in several weeks, learning, hiking, resting, playing, drawing and being secure.

Tomorrow, I am sending $900 donated dollars to RISSE to buy a new projector and screen for their classes on English, citizenship and handling money. Tuesday, I am buying spanking new uniforms for the RISSE soccer team. Next month, we are taking the soccer team to the Great Escape and Adventure Park for a day fun and community.

That is my personal answer to terror and tragedy.

All of the necessary funds have been gathered, and thank you. If you wish to contribute to RISSE directly,  you can do so here. They do heroic work on behalf of our newest and sometimes neediest citizens.

“The America we see right now,” one of the RISSE teachers told me,”this is not the real America. The real America is still out there. That’s what I tell the children.” So we are.

Every minute, the generosity seems more wonderful and necessary.  It was about a year ago, during a similar  hate and terror storm that people who thought themselves, I am sure, burned down the RISSE office and support center and slashed the tires on all of their vans.

As I come to know these children and their parents, I have come to love and respect them. They have suffered unimaginable horrors and now have to endure the bigots and the small-minded who insist they are dangerous, who have stranded many of their loved ones in great danger, and who have made them feel unwelcome and often frightened in the land of the free and the brave. The people who burned their building down and now rail at them because they are different are neither free or brave, they are slaves of their own, just as the terrorists in London are slaves.

So I will re-dedicate myself to this work, and speak out for compassion and love and empathy. I will do everything within my power to show the real nature of our wonderful and generous country to these good people, who have endured unimaginable horrors in their determination to come to our country.

Setting fire to their building is not what the real America is about. Neither is bigotry. We are a brave and generous people and I will celebrate liberty, not fear or hatred.

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