Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul (42 page)

I didn’t share Walter’s excitement when he told me that those fool geese of mine were now teaching themselves to fly.

“Craziest thing you ever saw,” he said. “Every morning about sunup they line up over in the corner of your front pasture. And then they rev up and point their noses into the wind and go whoopin’ across the whole bloody field. And I swear they’re gettin’ now so’s their feet don’t hardly touch bottom!”

Then one morning when I was rounding the corner of the barn with a couple of pails of calf feed, I met a goose who was sufficiently airborne to knock my hat off. He and the others were ridiculously awkward at first. Even after the geese could gain enough altitude to clear the treetops, they still made comical mistakes, landing in the middle of the cattle, or on the roof of the barn and then tobogganing down over the edge and onto the manure pile below.

Then, suddenly, the awkward comedy was over. Their flying became sure and triumphantly beautiful, and when they floated by over my head, there was a grace and a majesty to them that made my throat tighten.

Walter said he saluted every time they went by his window. He spent a good deal of the time on his back now, but he had rolled his cot alongside the window so he still saw more of the geese than I did. And it was he who reported the tragedy to me.

“Better go out and look behind your lilac bush,” he told me one night when I got home. “Your springer and your pointer—well, the geese came down right in front of them, and they sort of ganged up on one. It couldn’t lift out of the way fast enough, I guess.”

Because I was pretty sure those dogs would do the same thing again first chance they had, I took my pail of oats into the machine shed that night, and when the geese followed me I shut the door on them. “That’s all for this year,” I told them. “You’ll just have to stay put.”

I hadn’t been thinking about Walter at all, I guess, that night I locked up the geese. But one morning, when I went in to split some kindling for him, I noticed that his couch was no longer by the window.

“Oh, but the days do be long now!” he told me. “I keep thinkin’ about them geese of yours,” he said. “I do miss seein’ them go by the window! I keep thinkin’ if I was a goose and you was to give me the choice between bein’ a safe prisoner or flyin’ free, and maybe gettin’ my neck bit off, I know what I’d choose!”

Next morning I let the geese out of the shed, and I locked up the dogs. And the geese took off and went shrieking around the farm and over the house and through the trees till I thought they would drop from sheer fatigue.

“Heck no, they’re not
tired!
”Walter said. “Can’t you hear them laughing up there?”

He had his couch smack tight to the window again.
I’ll
go in one morning,
I thought,
and find him dead on that couch.

But I was wrong about that. They found him one soft, misty, green morning in April about halfway back to the woods. He had a little pack on his back and a pair of field glasses.

Maybe, if some of you happen to cross over before I do, you might tell Walter for me that the geese are still flying free. He shouldn’t be hard to find, because if things are like they say they are over there, he’ll have had no trouble making it all the way to the woods this time.

H. Gordon Green

Of Dogs and Angels

During my years in animal welfare work—I served as the president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—I have heard wonderful stories about the power of the human-animal bond. One of my favorites is about a girl and her very special dog.

When the girl was born, her parents were stationed with the U.S. Army overseas. The tiny baby spiked a fever of 106 degrees and when they couldn’t help her at the military base, the baby and her family were flown home to the United States where she could receive the proper medical care.

The alarming fever kept recurring, but the baby survived. When the episode was over, the child was left with thirteen different seizure causes, including epilepsy. She had what was called multiple seizure syndrome and had several seizures every day. Sometimes she stopped breathing.

As a result, the little girl could
never
be left alone. She grew to be a teenager and if her mother had to go out, her father or brothers had to accompany her everywhere, including to the bathroom, which was awkward for everyone involved. But the risk of leaving her alone was too great and so, for lack of a better solution, things went on in this way for years.

The girl and her family lived near a town where there was a penitentiary for women. One of the programs there was a dog-training program. The inmates were taught how to train dogs to foster a sense of competence, as well as to develop a job skill for the time when they left the prison. Although most of the women had serious criminal backgrounds, many made excellent dog trainers and often trained service dogs for the handicapped while serving their time.

The girl’s mother read about this program and contacted the penitentiary to see if there was anything they could do for her daughter. They had no idea how to train a dog to help a person in the girl’s condition, but her family decided that a companion animal would be good for the girl, as she had limited social opportunities and they felt she would enjoy a dog’s company.

The girl chose a random-bred dog named Queenie and together with the women at the prison, trained her to be an obedient pet.

But Queenie had other plans. She became a “seizure-alert” dog, letting the girl know when a seizure was coming on, so that the girl could be ready for it.

I heard about Queenie’s amazing abilities and went to visit the girl’s family and meet Queenie. At one point during my visit, Queenie became agitated and took the girl’s wrist in her mouth and started pulling her towards the living room couch. Her mother said, “Go on now. Listen to what Queenie’s telling you.”

The girl went to the couch, curled up in a fetal position, facing the back of the couch and within moments started to seize. The dog jumped on the couch and wedged herself between the back of the couch and the front of the girl’s body, placing her ear in front of the girl’s mouth. Her family was used to this performance, but I watched in open-mouthed astonishment as the girl finished seizing and Queenie relaxed with her on the couch, wagging her tail and looking for all the world like an ordinary dog, playing with her mistress.

Then the girl and her dog went to the girl’s bedroom as her parents and I went to the kitchen for coffee. A little while later, Queenie came barreling down the hallway, barking. She did a U-turn in the kitchen and then went racing back to the girl’s room.

“She’s having a seizure,” the mother told me. The girl’s father got up, in what seemed to me a casual manner for someone whose daughter often stopped breathing, and walked back to the bedroom after Queenie.

My concern must have been evident on my face because the girl’s mother smiled and said, “I know what you’re thinking, but you see, that’s not the bark Queenie uses when my daughter stops breathing.”

I shook my head in amazement. Queenie, the self-taught angel, proved to me once again how utterly foolish it is to suppose that animals don’t think or can’t communicate.

Roger Caras

More Chicken Soup?

Many of the stories and poems you have read in this book were submitted by readers like you who had read earlier
Chicken Soup for the Soul
books. We publish at least five or six
Chicken Soup for the Soul
books every year. We invite you to contribute a story to one of these future volumes.

Stories may be up to twelve hundred words and must uplift or inspire. You may submit an original piece or something you clip out of the local newspaper, a magazine, a church bulletin or a company newsletter. It could also be your favorite quotation you’ve put on your refrigerator door or a personal experience that has touched you deeply.

Send a copy of your stories and other pieces to the following address:

Chicken Soup for the Soul
P.O. Box 30880 • Santa Barbara, CA 93130
fax: 805-563-2945
Web sites:
www.chickensoup.com
www.clubchickensoup.com

We will be sure that both you and the author are credited for your submission.

For information about speaking engagements, other books, audiotapes, workshops and training programs, please contact any of the authors directly.

Problems with Your Pet?

Do you have a pet that continues to bite, bark, dig, chew, scratch or make messes despite repeated warnings or punishment? Have you thought about kicking it out of bed, out of the house, or worse?

Unrealistic expectations and lack of understanding about pet behavior has resulted in millions of innocent pets being taken to shelters and euthanized each year, along with the accompanying human guilt and grief.

The key to understanding your animal’s behavior is to first understand that it’s not “a little person” but a proud member of another species. All animals instinctively act like they would in the wild, unless we teach them otherwise. Without proper training, it’s just a matter of time until the pet behaves in a way that is natural to them, but that runs counter to people’s wishes. Sadly, the pet pays the ultimate price.

There are solutions! If you or someone you know has a pet with a behavior problem, ask your veterinarian where to obtain accurate information and referrals to trained behaviorists.

Individuals who have raised and trained animals for decades are getting better results with new, gentler methods. People are learning that they can teach an old cat new tricks, such as using a scratching post or a litter box. They’re also learning that love, patience and kindness are far more effective tools for training a dog than a belt or the back of a hand.

Join us in eliminating the needless killing of pets for treatable behavior problems. Ask your veterinarian for advice or referral, or contact:

American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals
Behavior Hotline (212) 876-7700 xHELP (#4357)
www.aspca.org
American Veterinary Medical Association
(847) 925-8070
www.avma.org

American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
Referrals to a veterinary behaviorist
[email protected]

Animal Behavior Society
Listing of certified applied animal behaviorists
Fax (812) 856-5542
www.animalbehavior.org
(select applied behavior section)

More Resources

Television

When you land on Animal Planet, you’re in for a surprise. It’s everything you love on TV but with an animal twist! Action. Adventure. Comedy. Pet care shows. Even sports. Shows like
Emergency Vets, The Crocodile Hunter, Petsburgh U.S.A.
and the world’s most fascinating wildlife documentaries. Animal Planet . . . it brings out the human in us. Visit them at
www.animalplanet.com
for great tips on pet behavior problems.

Internet

Petopia.com
(
www.petopia.com
)
, the “Internet Pet Paradise,” is the most comprehensive pet site on the Internet, offering quality products and useful, objective information.
Petopia.com
’s goal is to be pet lovers’ absolute and most-trusted resource for caring for their pets.
Petopia.com
has joined Dr. Marty Becker, his coauthors and Health Communications, Inc., in the “Million Pet Mercy Mission,” a bold crusade to find loving homes for 1 million of the estimated 6 million pets that will be euthanized—for often treatable behavior problems— nationwide in the year 2000. For online help and solutions, visit Dr. Becker at
www.petopia.com
.

Magazines

Rodale’s
Pets: part of the family
focuses on all aspects of the people-pet partnership—emotional, physical and spiritual. It also provides specific ways of improving problematic behavior that can ruin this relationship. There is a book series and Public Television series also called
Pets:
part of the family.
Hosted by Gary Burghoff—“Radar” on the
M*A*S*H
series, the show covers a wide variety of heartwarming and practical segments on all kinds of pets. For more information visit their Web site at:
www.petspartofthefamily.com
.

Products

For behavior management information or for a referral, visit
www.gentleleader.com
.

Organizations Dedicated to Helping Pets

In an ongoing effort to return a portion of the priceless gifts that pets give mankind, part of the proceeds from
Chicken Soup for the Cat
and Dog Lover’s Soul
will be donated to the following organizations. Contact them directly for more information and join us in supporting them generously.

American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF)

Committed to the special relationship between people and pets, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF) fosters animal health and well-being by funding treatment for animals injured in disasters, promoting the bond between people and animals, supporting studies to save and improve the lives of animals, and enhancing veterinary education.

Disasters pose a huge threat to the bond we share. Fortunately, the AVMF can be a source of help and hope as floods, hurricanes, fires and tornadoes continue to devastate our country each year. A partnership between the AVMF, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Red Cross is helping to establish the resources and networks to address this issue.