I backed off writing Simon’s Journal, because I wanted to shift my focus of him from a piteous rescue creature to whatever it was he might evolve into. I’d like to resume the Journal, because Simon’s role and personality are emerging, and I hope to write a book about mercy and compassion, using him and his story as the narrative thread.

Animal rescue is obvious a worthy thing and there are any number of “rescued” creatures on the farm – a donkey, a chicken, two dogs, two barn cats.  As I have written, I am sometimes uncomfortable about the growing tendency to view all animals, especially dogs, through the prism of abuse and rescue. It is sometimes – surely not always – exploitive, I think,  about the human looking good and feeling angry, self-righteous or superior.

I think Most dogs in America live good lives beyond the wildest dreams of their predecessors – something there are few books about –  and if we can hate humans for the way they mistreat animals, perhaps we can love them for the ways in which they treat them well.  Simon has, in fact, shed the role of the abused creature near-death and it is something that rarely comes up in our view of him. His belly has filled, his coat has grown, his teeth are good, his eyes are brown and alive, his  legs need some work but are coming along.

We are crazy about Simon. He is not only internationally famous and popular, he has become one of the central personalities on the farm, perhaps it’s most fitting symbol. First off, he is a riot, greeting Maria and I with joyous brays when we appear. He has a lot of personality. He is unbelievably affectionate, running over to us to get his head patted, to commune or cuddle, to sniff a pocket, to hang out. He loves to walk with me, sit in the barn, be read to and talked to. I swear he listens. I love him and I love spending time with him. He is too smart – opening barn doors, feed cans, slipping out of gates unlatched.  He is gracious and tolerant of Lulu and Fanny, who are as the farrier predicted,”The Queens,” and “Simon is Simon.” He loves people and is easy with children (though not yet with dogs.)

He is understanding his name, and some commands – “let’s take a walk,” “beat it,” “get out of the barn.” More on that later.

Simon reminds me that animals do not consider themselves abused or neglected, but adapt, move on, seek affection, attention and food.  I do not consider him abused, and it wouldn’t matter to him if  I did.It seems to me that humans sometimes cling to those labels for the benefit of things that have nothing to do with animals.  If animals don’t forgive and forget, they sure forget. You would think – most people do – that Simon was born on the farm and lived her his whole life, he is so at ease and confident.

If our relationship was born out of rescue, that is barely a shadow now, in his life or in my own sense of him. So I’m re-starting Simon’s Journal in a different place and from a different perspective. On the book tour I will sure miss that bray.