Day: January 7, 2015

Driving home from my friend Carol Gulley’s farm I saw this very beautiful wall hanging on Chestnut Hill Road, a work of art that will be on exhibit for awhile.

Jack Metzger and his “Outback Jack’s” antique business is a centerpiece of my town’s Main Street. Luke is always there as well, in warm weather he sits out on the porch, in the winter he goes inside. Jack is an artist as well as a businessman, his porch is a never-ending gallery of rural life, I write every word on one of his old farm desks and our home and grounds are filled with the statuary he collects from old farms and sales. I’m liking the swan on his porch.

Simon had a bit of a split personality, he loved people but did not love all animals. Perhaps because he was nearly starved, he guarded his food. He ate on one side of the feeder, Lulu and Fanny on the other. The sheep had their own feeder, he never let them come near his  food.

Red’s job was to keep them apart.

This scenario has changed. With Simon gone, the donkeys and the sheep can all eat at one feeder, Red can sit and observe. It is always interesting to me to see how animals respond to loss of another animal. Lulu and Fanny have had no changes in their behavior, they tend to be stoic, but they are eating enthusiastically, keeping to their usual patterns of behavior. Same with the the sheep. Much is made of animal grieving, I have yet to see signs of it in any animal I have ever been around.

This is not to say the other animals are not aware of Simon’s death, I believe they all are in their own way, just not our way.