I’ve never known a border collie who loves people as much as Fate loves people, especially kids and babies. Fate climbed up on a footstool so she could give Robin a lick right on the nose. Two kindred sweet spirits.
Robin and Emma and Jay arrived Friday night, around dinnertime she was in a great and beaming mood, as usual, dancing and singing and standing up a bit. Fate and Gus were beside themselves climbing over her and greeting and loving her. They are leaving early tomorrow, Jay (Jaffe) has a new book out – The Cooperstown Casebook – and he is signing it and talking about it at the Baseball Hall Of Fame In Cooperstown, N.Y., two hours from here.
It will be a short visit (no videos from me), we brought in some pizza from the Round House Cafe, and fresh corn from the Moses Farm Stand and Apple Walnut pie from Yushak’s Deli in Shushan, N.Y.
Everybody is wiped, Robin is already in bed, I’m heading there soon. I’ve been getting up at 4 a.m. to work on my book.
Yesterday, I wrote about Devota Nyiraneza, who walked 2,485 miles across Central Africa to escape the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, and who came to America – to Albany, in May of 2007. She is a U.S.Citizen, working two jobs to pay off a $10,000 loan she mistakenly thought was a financial aid package for her son.
She suffered near starvation, rape and severe exposure on her journey, you can read about it here. Today, a number of people messaged me to say they wished to donate money to help her, and so I have agreed to collect donations, which I will turn over to her.
If you wish to contribute, you can send a check (please mark it Devota Fund) to Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or you can send it to me via Paypal Friends and Family, my ID is [email protected], I have already received more than $1,000 without even asking.
I think this is something the Army of Good wants to do. And it is something I wish to do.
Devota is a courageous human being, hers is a remarkable story. She is full of grace and acceptance. She risked everything to get to America and is working hard every day to build a life her for herself and her children, all of them the result of sexual assaults on her walk and in refugee camps.
This is truthful story about the real life of a real refugee, not the ones whose lives and character have been so viciously caricatured by our ambitious and heartless political leaders. Devota is a credit to any country she lives in, she works two jobs, one working with the disabled for Catholic Charities, another, cleaning hospital rooms at the Albany Medical Center. She has no hard or angry words for anyone.
Sadly, she left her family behind, they are no longer permitted to come to America. You can read my piece about her here.
The journey took her a year, she had no shoes or extra clothes or shelter. Many of the people she set out to walk with were slaughtered by farmers guarding their crops from starving refugees fleeing mass murders.
Thanks for considering this, I will visit her and follow her story. My sense is she wishes to take care of herself, and does not wish other kinds of support. But she is paying this loan off at the rate of $125 a month, and that will take a long time. Her son has left college to help pay for a different loan he took out to become an engineer.
Even if we don’t get to $10,000 anything we do get will be helpful to her. And we are already off to an impressive start, this one got ahead of me. Thank you for even thinking about this. Small donations matter. Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or Paypal, [email protected]. Small donations matter.
Earlier this week, Gus made friends with Fanny (on the right). The normally standoffish Lulu hasn’t bothered Gus, but isn’t charmed either, or paying much attention to him. Gus is working on her, looking up appealing, hoping she will lower her head so he can lick her on the nose, as he did with Fanny.
So far, at least, Lulu isn’t buying it. Long term, my money is on Gus. He has a knack for charming women.
I told Red to “hold” the sheep while we shoveled the manure out of the barn. He took up his position, and then Fate surprised me a bit, she came into the barn, right up close to the seep and got into their faces with confidence and assurance, something she doesn’t often do.
One of the ewes stomped at her, which usually drives her off, but this time, she held her ground. I wonder if something is changing inside of her. Then, even more surprising, Gus left Maria’s side – she was out with the donkeys – and came into the barn and also took up position (a safe one), alongside Red and behind Fate.
The three of them stared at the sheep and none of the sheep moved an inch. However illusory it might be – there is no way this little dog, the size of a bunny rabbit, could herd a flock of sheep – I loved the sight of it, and I especially love the fact that Gus is now so at home in the Pole Barn, with the donkeys, and out in the pasture.
He is most wary of the sheep, and that is good, it keeps him on his toes around them. I do not want to be so content out there that he isn’t paying attention. He could get hurt. But not with Red and Fate in front of him. Those sheep are not going anywhere.
I had a thought there this morning, that the poor sheep must be baffled at this idosyncratic line up assembled against them. I imagine them thinking, What the hell? What is he throwing against us now?
I believe strongly that we are becoming so emotionalized and protective and phobic about our dogs that we no longer permit them to be dogs. One of the most satisfying elements of my life with dogs is that on the farm, and in the country, they can live their lies more naturally and fully.
They can run free, solve problems, even have some problems. There are no perfect lives here, we are all working on the same path.
We decided from the first to let Gus be a dog, not a fuzzy little lap creature. And he is. Maybe there will be a true miracle, and he will learn to give the sheep the herding eye. That would be a miracle.
