They Too Have Souls: Encounters With Creatures

EXCERPTS From: They Too Have Souls

This book is not a catalogue of species, nor a diary of farm life, but a collection of moments when animals and humans cross paths and reveal something of themselves. It is about cats, porcupines, ants, horses, snakes, and birds, but also about us and what animals have meant to us. One thing is clear. After all the dust settles, they too have souls.“`

Dogs love differently than humans—they don’t love us for any reason; they love us for no reason. We can’t duplicate or even imitate that.

He retreats just as quickly, to prevent being eaten. For, as so often in the world of spiders, eros and thanatos—love and death—are inextricably entwined.

All summer and fall the pig enlarged us with her canny humor and intelligence. We all loved her, but I loved her the most, sitting with her to talk of important things, mostly food, and other things that matter, as we compared our view of the world, ironical and stoic.

We brought the dogs in and stayed inside when the bears were around. We weren’t exactly afraid; in fact, they felt like familiars, but that didn’t stop us from telling the story of the old woman in Peñasco who was making jam in her kitchen when a bear came in and killed her, then ate all her jam. Familiars, yes, but not family. One afternoon, Phaedra said look—out the window, and when I did, I saw an immense brown back.