The Outermost House — blog

Dawn Chorus (Other Nations)

This morning I saw that the Acorn Woodpeckers are well into harvest season, with or without cooler temperatures. One crew was drilling out their barns and tossing out last year’s detritus while another crew was hauling in large acorns to stuff into those clean barns: knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. I send them a Woody Woodpecker good morning. They glance briefly in my direction, like people everywhere who are focused on a task. “Mmmhmm,” they say, “I’m busy right now.”

animal family, anthrozoology, ecospirituality, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiSeptember 7, 2013loving nature, imagination, Henry Beston, The Outermost House, seasonal change, woodpeckers, animal feeling, animal sentience, animal play, animal behavior, ravenComment

A Valentine for my Wild Lovers

I used to say that the way to save a wild animal is to sleep with him. I enjoyed the double entendre, especially because we project all our own feelings of beastly sexuality onto our furry friends. But there's some simple and literal truth in my self-entertaining expression; I learned by sleeping with wild animals that they want the same things we do, that they communicate their desires with surprising clarity, if we pay attention.

anthrozoology, animal family, ecospirituality, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiFebruary 14, 2013animal family, animal play, animal behavior, fawn, Brazilian cardinal, animal rescue, Valetine, Henry Beston, The Outermost House, Ash Wednesday, T.S. EliotComment