Search Results for “"Cary Neeper"”

How The Hen House Turns: Animal Bonding

on July 17, 2018 No Comments

Even the squirrels will stop and stare, posing nicely, if I talk sweet nothings to them. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

We have never owned a horse, but I would love to have had one, plus several to keep it company–now that I’ve read about them and their remarkable history with humans. What an incredible tolerance they have had for us. Why did they adapt to our demands over so many thousands of years? What in their nature allowed that, given their preference for living wild in small bands?

It makes me wonder how long we have domesticated chickens.

How The Hen House Turns: The Value Of Sweet Talk

on June 15, 2018 No Comments

California Fox on town trail. Courtesy photo

Local Squirrel. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

Today I saw a beautiful young fox. He was crossing the path that runs across the steep wooded hill above our local creek. The water was quiet since we have had little rain lately. The creek can be quite noisy after a rain. It drains the steep meadows that reach out to Skyline Blvd, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean four miles up hill.

The fox saw me and froze for a moment. So did I. When I reached for my camera, he started across the trail, then stopped and looked me

How The Hen House Turns: Animal News

on May 17, 2018 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

We are learning so much about animals lately … however, I’m not sure I should recommend the book I just finished reading—Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes, New York, Marble Arch Press, 2014.

It’s a fun read—overloaded with side-comments, personal critiques (not always irreverent) and fascinating anecdotes, as well as hard core lists of vertebrates and invertebrates (in alternating chapters) with their surprising talents.

“It’s by disagreeing that scientists find things out.” is an example of the author’s side comments. “Sharks

How The Hen House Turns: Animal Emotion

on April 16, 2018 No Comments

Red Gwen on the bench. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

Had I ever seen an obvious emotion like joy in the Hen House gang? I asked the question as I was reading Marc Bakoff’s book The Emotional Lives of Animals (California, New World Library, 2007). Had I seen sorrow? Fear? In the dogs, yes.

Our dogs—Skates, Poncho, DeeDee and Scooter—displayed what I could call obvious emotion at times. Several incidents stand out as too obvious to write off as “anthropomorphizing:” their tail-wagging joy at the suggestion of a walk in the canyon or a ride in the car.

How The Hen House Turns: Changing Life

on March 15, 2018 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

Do most kids want a pet of their own? Something aside from the family cat or dog? Not something or someone who is just part of the family.

There’s a subtle distinction to be made here. Usually, walking or feeding the dog or cat often falls on this child or that (when Mom and Dad are too busy) “It’s not “my” dog, Mom” (unless I own it, buy it myself, choose it myself, and house it in my room).

I learned that lesson years ago, and I expect it still holds. Or have things changed during the last few decades? Dogs seemed to have changed. There are many more varieties

How The Hen House Turns: Animal Awareness

on February 20, 2018 No Comments

Lucy and Bobby. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

After our forty years raising domestic birds and dogs, including them in our family, I can’t resist celebrating the wonderful studies done lately on animal sentience.

There are many books recently published, some on best-seller lists—several on octopuses, their inventiveness, and their interest in relating to humans. Many books describe enlightening interactions between humans and other animals. Some of the most poignant stories describe how to relate with domestic herding animals and horses.

How The Hen House Turns—The Power Of Awareness

on January 17, 2018 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

As I look back on our forty-six years in Los Alamos, I am especially grateful for the opportunity our children had there—to raise animals. Their love for “others” still impacts all their lives.

We are thankful—not only to the county for its understanding of the lessons learned from knowing animals, but to the tolerant neighbors who understood the occasional barking and crowing during the occasional early hour.

One asked us please to have another rooster because she loved the sound of morning crowing. For many years we had kept our gamecock

How The Hen House Turns: Urban Deer

on December 20, 2017 No Comments

Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

While living beside the canyons of Los Alamos, one learns to get along with deer—or not. I would recommend it.

They are beautiful animals and don’t eat more apples than their share. A large buck was very careful to take no more than one bite out of the three huge green tomatoes that I had laboriously watered all summer in the only sunny spot in our front yard.

There was a chance that those tomatoes might have ripened. Maybe. It was late August. Maybe not. A few days later the deer came back and nibbled a little from each native

How The Hen House Turns: No Horses In The Backyard

on November 21, 2017 No Comments

Former Los Alamos resident Cary Neeper’s four granddaughters on a horse ranch in Colorado. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

The residents of the Hen House during our forty years in Los Alamos taught us tovrespect their personhood. And now, in the last decade or two, academic studies confirm the notion that animals do have emotions and cognizance.

Sadly, we were stuck too long in Rene Descartes’ 17th century idea that “nonhuman animals cannot reason or feel but are…machines made out of meat.”

Charles Darwin disagreed, and now we have

How The Hen House Turns: Some Thoughts On The Anthropocene

on October 23, 2017 No Comments

DeeDee and Scooter. Courtesy photo

How the Hen House Turns

By CARY NEEPER

Have we arrived in the new Anthropocene Age for Mother Earth? Have we humans left an indelible mark on our planet, one that has changed the planet for all time?

I think of the huge rafts of plastic waste on Earth’s oceans, the threat to giraffes and so many other beings close to extinction. Then I read about New Mexico’s former Gov. Bill Richardson and his work with The Humane society to “…end all experiments on chimps … to outlaw cockfighting, and to end all horse slaughter in North America.”

Richardson

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