Cricket and The Men

 

What is this horse doing?

She is trying to get to her friends across the road.

 

It sounds like there should be a joke in there somewhere a la "Why did the horse cross the road?"  To get to the other side!  In this case, the smart-aleck response is actually the correct answer.

 



You see, the horse, Cricket, has made friends with the bulls.  She spends most of her time with them throughout the year and feels like she is part of their group.  It's hard to say whether or not they like having her there or not, but she stays out of their way during displays of male dominance and alpha-male establishment exercises and doesn't take much of their food, so I suppose they tolerate her at least.  It seems like an unlikely friendship, but that's exactly what The Men are to Cricket- they are her friends.

According to Temple Grandin in her book Animals in Translation, "Animals have the same core emotions we do. Just keeping animals healthy and well fed isn't enough; we need to give animals enough social contact with other animals-- and with humans in the case of cats and dogs-- to live an emotionally normal life."  Grandin writes frequently in the book about horses being particularly social creatures who need companionship.  She writes that in social grazing groups, you can "find animals keeping company with other animals they aren't related to...Animals need friends and companions, and humans need to make sure they have them." Example A: Cricket and The Men.

Cricket was only left on the wrong side of the fence for a short while before let in with her beloved bulls.  I saw her leaned up against this fence while driving home from work one afternoon and I identified with how she felt.

One drawback of living in such a remote place is that often your closest friends and family are far, far away.    It's not easy for my friends, many of whom live in other states, to make it out here for a visit. Really, it's not easy for anyone to make it out here for a visit. I'm not blaming- that's just how it is. And we're just as busy, so it's not always easy for us to get away either. Even in this age of limitless connectivity possibilities, the busyness of life still impedes. Internet connections go down, phonecalls can be missed or dropped, or not returned because something else comes up.  It happens. 

Obviously, I'm very happy with the choice I made to be here.  There are innumerable benefits I could list and have written about frequently. But, that doesn't keep a person from missing her closest friends. Lately I have been feeling that separation. It's been a long time since I have been home. Perhaps reading about the Adam family gathering last weekend is what has been behind these feelings of nostalgia.  Missed phonecalls between me and friends don't help either.  Yes, I would describe myself as an introvert who very much enjoys, even relishes, time spent alone, but there's also something about being with those close friends and family who know you so deeply that can be just as restorative. Unfortuntely, there's much more than a couple fences and a stretch of gravel road separating me from some of my dearest friends, none of whom are bulls.