An Animal's Soul

Do you believe that animals are capable of compassion? Do they have a soul? One of the many pastors in my life told me that there will be no animals in heaven because they were soulless and this distressed me to no end. My idea of heaven includes every cat I every loved curled up around me. Yesterday I read an interesting article in the Shambhala Sun called Creature Comforts in which the the author talked about animals in her life that had comforted her and others, and I started thinking about two of my favorite cats.

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Matthew was a lover. He had a purr as big as a lion, and all 18 pounds of him was muscle - he was a BIG cat. He used to eat yogurt with me in the morning and greet me at the door when I came home - some of my friends said he was a puppy-kitty because he acted so much like a dog. I am a frequent migraine sufferer as many of you know, and the first time I had a migraine after adopting Matthew he did something that no cat had done before or since. He carefully positioned all 18 pounds of himself around the top of my head and started purring. It was a softer purring than he usually did. Occasionally, seemingly right after a surge of pain, he'd lick my cheek. Every time I had a migraine he was there, even if he had been missing all day. And you know, I think he helped me; my headaches always seemed to go away faster with less medication. I miss that sweet cat.

If any animal ever had a soul, it was Ollie. He was a scruffy mix of every sort of cat imaginable and not the prettiest cat you'd ever see, but the first time I opened his cage at the Humane Society he jumped right into my arms, looked in my eyes, and became one of the great loves of my life. He would frequently sit with me and respond to me with chirps and meows when I was talking to myself, joined in the conversations that I had with my friends, and liked to put his paw on your hand and just sit, quiet and contemplative. He slept on my chest every night and unlike Matthew, he weighed nothing, so I barely even noticed he was there. However, the day that I had the auto accident that bruised all of my ribs and left me limping from a severely sprained hip joint he found the one spot on my body that didn't hurt to snuggle up against, my right shoulder. When the pain meds made me have nightmares and I woke disoriented, he put his paw on my forehead and chirped and talked until I was aware again. He made it his job to watch over me, even walking beside me as I carefully hobbled about, meowing if it seemed I would lose my footing. And the day that my chest felt better, he resumed his normal position, head by mine, softly purring through the night.

What are your animal compassion stories? I know that there are hundreds, if not millions, out there; please share them!

Flowers; or The Return of Spring

There is color, bloom, and fragrance in the air everywhere. My gardens and those in Marysville are abloom, more pastels and the occasional shocking pink show up every day.

And as soon as they bloom, they form carpets of petals on the ground. One rainstorm and the magnolia is bare, the cherry blossoms create a path for winter weary feet. Daffodils droop and iris bleed, but they will be replaced by the flowers of summer - roses and lavender, hollyhocks and cosmos.

Though never really gone, the robins and chipmunks hop along doing their spring business. Nests are built and worms are eaten. The animals return to their business as they join us in awakening from their winter slumber.

Welcome spring.

Zoo Day

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Just back from the Columbus Zoo. Over a year ago, I wrote about how great and under-appreciated our zoo was; since that time, it has been voted the #1 zoo in the United States!

Today was a less than stellar visit. Everyone in Ohio and the surrounding states was there with the lines to prove it. Early on, William got sunscreen in his eye and cried and rubbed until his eye was swollen shut. This, along with the bruise on his cheek from running into the sofa arm made him look a little pathetic. I got some "you child beater" looks from judgemental parents (accidents happen, don't get your panties in a bunch!) He wasn't thrilled when I flushed his eye with saline. But his eye got better.

His less than enthusiastic response rubbed off on Kendall and Collin, so for about half of the visit, we were all sort of downers. But then we got to the Aquarium. There is nothing that Will loves more than fish. His eyes grew large, he climbed out of his wagon, and pressed his nose up against the glass in complete awe and delight. He didn't want to leave. Kendall and Collin joined right in. It's a miracle that we got home.

I bought season tickets, so hopefully better zoo days are ahead. If nothing else, get the boy to the aquarium!

Goin' to the Zoo

A few days ago, during one of our increasingly frequent discussions with Collin about learning how to get along with his sister (Kendall got one too) we talked to Collin about how there is only 2 more weeks of summer vacation (cue Handel's "Hallelujiah Chorus") and was there anything that he wanted to do as a family before school started. He suggested going to California, going to a pro sports game, and Disney World, which unfortunately were all non-options since the money tree died, and then he came up with the zoo. The Columbus Zoo is a very much underrecognized world-caliber zoo that neither Tim nor I had visited in 10 years, so the decision was made: To the Zoo!

Kendall, her boyfriend, and Collin disappeared pretty much the second that we walked through the gate, so it was just the hubby, the baby, and me. Will has always been fascinated by animals, and we were excited to see what he would think of the zoo. Well, wouldn't you know it, he was too distracted by the other babies and children streaming by to notice much else. He did, however, have a jolly old time in the petting zoo, where the goats actually were happy to let him pet them (unlike our cats, who flee in terror when they see him).


Will makes a new friend

My earliest memory of the Columbus Zoo is much like all zoos of the time, rows of little cages with animals pacing back and forth. But when Jack Hanna took over as zoo director of the zoo in 1978 (yes, David Letterman's Jack Hanna), it was transformed into acres and acres of gorgeous animal habitats, which are now organized by continent.

Another early memory involves the 1914 M C Illions Carousel (listed on the National Register of Historic Places). It is a gorgeous carousel, complete with all 52 of its original horses, 2 chariots, and a band organ. Nowadays the horses stand pretty much upright, but when I was a kid, the horses tipped side to side and, I kid you not, they had to be at a 55 degree angle for a large portion of the ride. The majority of my time was spent clinging desperately to the pole so that I wouldn't plummet to my death off of the horse. The tipping was fortunately discontinued and now millions of kids enjoy this beauty every year.


See, the horses are straight!

Peacocks roam freely throughout the zoo, which brings me to a story about my Grandma Rosie. When I was around 10, my grandparents took my cousin Rachael and I to the zoo. Shortly after entering the park, a peacock appeared and seemed to take a liking to my grandmother. She didn't do anything to provoke its affections, but we were followed all day long by grandma's peacock suitor, who on occassion pecked lovingly at her toes and rubbed around her legs. Many displays of peacock plumage and manly strutting also transpired. When we were leaving the park, a zoo keeper had to physically restrain the peacock so that he wouldn't leave the park to live forever with his new love. The parting was tragic and a little violent, but I believe that the relationship was ill fated from the start.


Columbus's most romantic bird

The zoo's claim to fame is Colo, who, in 1956, became the first gorilla born in captivity. Since that time, the Columbus zoo has become a worldwide leader in the care, conservation, and breeding of gorillas. Colo is now a great-grandmother and is still thriving. PBS recently ran an incredibly beautiful (and heartbreaking) Nature episode entitled "Snowflake: The White Gorilla"; Colo and Dotty, Colo's great-granddaughter were featured in the episode. If you have the opportunity to see it, watch this episode, unless you don't like to get teary-eyed.


Happy gorillas at the zoo

I think most people my age who grew up in Columbus have a bit of a love affair with the zoo. Did I mention that they currently have the largest snake in captivity ("Fuzzy" the python), that they have a wonderful manatee exhibit, that they championed white tigers at a time when other zoos were euthanizing them at birth due to their genetic abnormality? Columbus really is a great city with a great zoo.

So it wasn't my intention to write a travel log-advertisement for the zoo; I did get a bit carried away, but our trip today took me back to my childhood and reminded me how much I just love our zoo. Hopefully, on our next visit, Will will become a bit more observant and start his love-affair. Until then, he can dream about new animals called goats that let him pet them and tried to eat mommy's camera cord and a land of endless babies in strollers just like him.