Thursday, May 07, 2009

Bully, the Brahma, defending her eggs



In living with as many animals as we do, I find myself "zoomorphosizing" folks, giving them animal attributes, the opposite of anthropomorphizing, which ascribes human characteristics to either animals or inanimate objects, like our cars or sewing machines or...?

Just the other day I found myself describing a friend's actions as that of a wounded dog, not wanting to show the vulnerable side for fear of attack. I also caught myself describing someone unwilling to give up total control by describing when I am collecting eggs and can't pick all of them up at once. The hen will quietly and discreetly extend her wing over the egg, slide it back towards her body and glide over it, now hiding it from me. I have a real hard time taking it away from them again after this sly maneuver.

The most embarrassing...when I am in the middle of imitating one of my animals behavior, complete with body contortions, facial expressions and deep, guttural noises. There is no lady like recovery from that show!

I love my animals and can't even begin to count all of the mouths we feed. The numbers will jump exponentially when we get our bees in two weeks. I am dizzy just thinking of that many creatures I will be mothering. What is another 30,000 mouths?

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