People can and should reach their own conclusions about why Zelda is standing right next to the grave we dug for her on Sunday. She is scheduled to be euthanized by our large animal vet Wednesday afternoon.
My animals consistently amaze me, the way they sense emotions and adapt, the way in which they manage to communicate with us even without language.
Like most biologists, I believe we can see and read many animal emotions but we can’t really know what they are thinking and feeling, much as we think we can. I don’t know what possessed Zelda to go and stand alongside her grave for the longest time.
My rule is that we can judge what we can see, not what we cannot.
It was only when Vince Vecchione backed up his tractor to prepare the Pole Barn for winter that Zelda moved. I had the idea that she wanted to jump in.
Did she sense on some level that her death was near? Did she pick up the emotion Maria and I were feeling as we dug the grave, and then again, as she stood right over it?
I can only tell you that I don’t know, it would be presumptuous of me to pretend that I did.
I respect the difference between what we need to believe, and what it true or known. I respect what we know and what we don’t.
I leave some mystery to my dogs, there is no way for us to be certain about what is happening in their alien minds.
There is a lot of aggressive certainty in the animal world, people are always telling me with absolute certainty what their dogs are thinking. People who insist they receive messages from them in our language all the time.
I’m not there. But it is natural and important to speculate, lots of us know dogs well and have valuable insights about them that I don’t have.
My sense of Zelda, who I have known for years, is that she did sense the feeling around us and around the grave we dug. If I were pushed – and this is a guess – I would take this as a signal that she is ready to move on. Why else would she be standing there for so long?
Sheep, like dogs, have no language, they can’t tell us. She didn’t speak to me in words but in actions.
Sometimes animals can show us, and sometimes we can show them.
Zelda is weak and restless, and frequently, disoriented, often off by herself, working hard to chew or even stand up. She didn’t look weak or confused when I took this photo. She seemed quite clear.
On that hill, she looked proud and at peace and accepting.
I am as certain as I can reasonably be that she is ready to go, and told me so in her own way. We have known one another a long time.
I would welcome any of your thoughts about it. You can post them on my Facebook Page.
Have you ever thought of contacting an animal communicator?
No, we communicate well with Zelda, I don’t feel I need a communicator, nor does Maria. We’ve been with her a long time. I prefer to work these things with my animals myself, and either way she’s being put down on Wednesday, I’m not sure what I need to know from her.
I’ll get back to you — as soon as I stop bawling. Go in peace, Zelda.
I have a farm in upper NY. Many spacies of animals. Been on farm 13 yrs. Before many animals also,just different sizes.since farm I have learned what death really is. Young, brutal,desperate, old, merciful. no reason, and yes there have been inhumane [not by me]. In all cases, I ,when I can, have explained [?to myself?] to receiver,,that I am there. All is safe, and this is why and what. I only hope they feel what I need feel. SO, yes investagate mound and grave. Find comfort.
Perhaps she’s just curious as the hole that wasn’t there before.
Perhaps…
Jon, you and Maria have given Zelda the best possible life a sheep could ask for, food, shelter and treats. Go in peace Zelda, you will be missed.
I think you might be right about Zelda. Animals do have a sense of what is going to happen. Years ago , I took care of a 23 year old horse whose owners I am close with. They were moving to Kentucky and knew that this old girl wouldn’t be able to make the trip. I took her in and for about a year she was pretty good. Then one day in the summer she was gone, I found her down the street where her old home was. We walked home and by the time we got back, she was sweating and struggling. She got better over the following weeks and then one day I found her down in the stall and couldn’t get her up. Her own vet was on vacation but I found one who came out and we got her up but he couldn’t do much more in terms of putting her down as there was a shortage of euthanasia drugs. I finally got her own vet to come and she said that it wouldn’t be a good idea to make her go thru another winter so we picked a dat in early December to have her put down.. On that day, I went to the barn to give her a last meal and say my good byes to this old girl. She wasn’t there, As I looked down the field, I saw her laying there, she was alive but again I couldn’t get her up. I couldn’t help but think, this was her way of telling me, I was making the right decision. I can’t be sure of what all those episodes of the previous months were her telling me she was ready or if it was just coincidence . It certainly made it easier for me to do it even though it still was emotional—-was she telling me something, I’ll never really be sure. Is Zelda telling you something, you’ll never really be sure.