Watch Your Reflection

There is a saying, "show me your horse, and I'll tell you what kind of person you are". That is, for me, a truth. Animals are our mirrors; a little neurotic? Check out Sparky the dog as he compulsively chases his tail. Tendency to scream at the kids? Watch Fluffy the cat cower and head for the nearest hidey hole as soon as you open your mouth. Calm, balanced and reasoned in thought and deed most of the time? See Sparky, a well behaved, friendly dog who is respectful of your space and happy in demeanor - see Fluffy, friendly and respectful of your space and happy in demeanor - well, to the extent a cat can be!

My point here is that if you have, or come across, an animal with personality and/or behaviour issues, 99.9% of the time it's an animal with a people problem, not the other way around. Sure, they all have their own unique personalities, and within that frame there are admittedly some goofy, hyper, "different" animals that it could be argued have issues. But the truly dysfunctional animal who to extremes is either: agressive, extremely reluctant to interact, exhibits compulsive behaviours or who comes across as disrespectful and/or ill mannered - is an animal with a dysfunctional human in their life.

Animals operate on a completely different level than human beings, and I'm not talking about the obvious mind/brain issues. Animals are energetic beings; they have the ability to read our energetic field if you will - or, to put it more directly - I believe they can see into our hearts and souls. What is your true intent? An animal knows it.

We've all seen this in action, or if we haven't, it's only because we weren't paying attention. Uncle Eddie with the temper and drinking problem comes for dinner to an otherwise pretty happy, together and loving home. He arrives sober; all smiling and outwardly functional because he hasn't started drinking yet. Watch the family dog and cat take off for their respective hiding places, not to be seen again voluntarily until Uncle Eddie has removed himself from the premises. Or.....you just moved into the neighborhood and new neighbor Jezebel pops in unexpectedly to be nosey. You and Fluffy greet her at the door? She leans over and says "oooh, I just LOVE kitty cats", and Fluffy takes off for the back forty as fast as her little legs can carry her. You might be left standing there thinking, "now what got into that cat", but trust me, after a painful few minutes with obnoxious Jezebel and her gossip, you get the picture why the cat left so fast.

My horses are exceptional judges of character. I can tell within the first minute of up close contact what kind of a person a stranger is by the way my horses react to them. Go ahead and think I'm exaggerating; I'm not. I asked a new farrier that I didn't know once to please leave because of the reaction my Cowboy had to him; I later found out he'd been abusive in his handling of horses at another stable nearby. I've seen horses in a therapeutic riding program differentiate between an inner city child with an eventually destructive and cruel "attitude" and one that was the same age, had the "attitude", but was merely putting on a front because he was unsure of himself and the situation. One was allowed to come into the horse's space and be rewarded with its trust; the other was backed away from and snorted at and never did get to ride.

This sharing of perspective was prompted by a situation I recently faced. The animals of the people from whom we bought our house, kept coming back here. It had been seven months. They only live a mile away. The wife called at one point, after the dog had come back 6 times, to ask me to please threaten the dog with a broom and yell at her to go home, "she's terrified of brooms, and I know if you just lift it up and threaten her with it she'll come home". I told her I couldn't do that. She came and got the dog? I watched in sadness as it cowered and shook just before the woman threw her in the truck.

Their cat came back again.

Cat? What cat...........................