Talk To The Animals

Talk To The Animals

If we could talk to the animals, just imagine it...we'd study elephant and eagle, buffalo and beagle, alligator, guinea pig and flea. - Dr. Doolittle lyrics; If I Could Talk To The Animals.

In the mind of God, the blessedness of animal life, the first man, Adam, named all of the animals, their kind, from their kind, all the species.

I have never ceased to be amazed at human devotion to pets...not just dogs and cats, but horses, monkeys, iguanas, birds. I have enough trouble taking care of myself. I do not think a pet wants to depend on me.

My friend Catherine had a beautiful guide dog about which she talked at length of the mutual devotion she shared with her dog. Blind her entire life, she had never seen an animal...would ask me to describe snakes, lizards, etc. Crossing a street, a car of careless teenagers, ran over she and her dog, killing her dog, Alma. She never recovered from her dog's death, refused to have another. The young people in the car did not even stop. If there is anything I have learned in my long life as a disabled veteran, the “normal” just do not care. As one restaurant owner said to me, (Middle of the Island, Wrightsville Beach, NC), disabled people in my restaurant “make others feel uncomfortable”. I think it is the same way at the church house, school house, even your house. The beauty of animals is unconditional love regardless of disability, your looks, your social standing, your money.

Many years ago, with a small amount of vision in my left eye, I made several trips around the world, particularly to the dark continent of Africa. I went on several photography safaris, sleeping in tents, cooking over an open fire. I have so many marvelous photographs which I wish I could see in order to restore my memories.

My guides were always fascinated that a blind man would make these efforts. Thank God I did it while there were animals to view and the world had not become so incrusted with the suffocation of warfare.

In Tanzania, Kalahari, great herds of wildebeests, lions in the bush, awaiting to attack a straggler, one who could not keep up, or one who's mother had just given birth. Or a pride of lions asleep on their back with the feet in the air. In the later of life, the strong always take over the weak. In Kenya, a great herd of the most majestic animals, elephants, at one side of a lake with a herd of buffalo on the other side. Driving towards the sunset, long-necked giraffes crossing the pathway...with my telescopic lens watching the blending of animals with the bush. Natural survival adaptation. One river, Congo, 350,000 hippopotamuses under the water during the heat of daylight, making the river look like a cobblestone road.

In the poverty of India and Asia, water buffaloes used for plowing the fields. Camels all over the world used for transportation. I suffered watching the donkeys in Afghanistan, Pakistan, even Greece, who always seemed to be carrying such burdens. There great discrepancies in human life as in animal life. Beasts of burden such as the mules of America compared to the pampered horses of the royal family or those wagered at race tracks.

My father never allowed us to pet animals on the farm which would be used for meat, even the young calves. The soulless animal does not realize he is going to die blessed by his Creator with the ability to survive. There are many things in this world I do not understand. I do not understand why God arranged for rats (the nastiest animal known to mankind, no excretory system, just excreting and eliminating everywhere he goes, poisoning our environment). I do not understand snakes, scorpions, lizards, spiders, termites. But in the food chain, the later of God's omnipotence there was a reason.

When Leeuwenhoek discovered the microscope in 1862, and even to this day, when thousands of investigators are staring through electronic microscopes, we become increasingly amazed at animal life. Then and now, and only God alone knows what the future holds, animal life is a great part of our life, mere mortals chosen by God to live on this earth with thanksgiving, He has provided us with the beast of burden to do hard work (oxen dragging great trees out of the swamps, water buffalo going round and round pumping water out of the ground, mules pulling cultivators for crop life and even, at one time, beautiful horses pulling buggies for the family doctor or providing ridership for the generals at the head of the armed forces).

When Caesar crossed the Hellespont with makeshift cages of African animals which Europeans had never seen, when a giraffe was walked all the way from Rome to Paris with thousands lining the roadways to see such an animal, when Fala, FDR's faithful pet, was such a nurturer to the crippled President as he guided this nation during WWII or as I see one of my neighbors walking their precious dog, in THEIR daily exercise, we realize the blessedness of talking with animals, many of whom, probably talk back in actions some can understand.