puppy love

I watched my puppy curled beneath my chair,

paws to nose, eyes tightly closed,

cuddly like a dark koala bear,

breathing gently, fast asleep;

smelling from sleep-warmed puppy fur -

and I loved him.

They seem to get intoxicated by the spring air.  They get so excited that they lose their way and get into the bathroom through the open window.

Now, rather stupidly, I get awfully sorry for those lost and frustrated bees.  So I spend quite a bit of time carefully fishing them out of the bathtub with a tissue and sending them out on their way.

Sometimes I can find up to 40 bees buzzing frantically against the window pane trying to get out.

If I open the window and usher them out they dance away into the sunlight.  But if I leave the window closed, in an hour they are all lying dead on the floor.

Now I have this strange theory that frustrated bees die of hopelessness and despair. They don’t hurt themselves buzzing against the window pane.  So why would they die so quickly?

Exactly!

Hopelessness and despair.

You can’t convince me that bees don’t think or that they don’t have emotions.

THE CLOSED WINDOW PANE

What has this to do with our own lives  you may very well ask?

A lot, I think.

I’ve seen so many people buzzing their lives against a closed window pane.  And yes, it is always accompanied by hopelessness and despair.

And then there are those intrepid folk who search for the open gap and fly out and upwards into the sunlight.

They are the optimistic ones.  They have learnt that the only way to achieve anything is through determination, drive, enthusiasm and optimism which is really a form of hope.

You should look at them carefully because they are the worker bees among us.

Those of you who read these posts will know that one of my interests is handwriting analysis and the meaning of handwriting.

There are signs and meaningful connections all around us.  We only have to be alert to them.

And yes, it’s possible to see the signs of hopelessness and despair not only in the behaviour of bees but in handwriting too!

Strange world isn’t it?

But seeing is believing!

So take a look at how this crow uses amazing ingenuity to get a small bucket of food out of a beaker.  He is a problem solver of the first order.

Is it fair to presume that we are the only thinking beings on the planet?

If we had a better relationship and a little more respect for our birds and animals we wouldn’t be in danger of losing so many of our threatened species.

Here is the video:  Clever Crow

What do you think?

I have reproduced it here for you because it has a message of human – animal relationships.

Or in this case a human – bird relationship that is very dear to my own heart.

It’s the type of thing that given the chance I would have loved to have done myself.  But having no humming birds in our neck of the woods it is virtually impossible!

Still it has a lovely message that I’m sure will resonate with you as a reader of Relationship World.

So here for your enjoyment is Steve’s “Petting a Hummingbird”

Petting a Hummingbird

I usually see hummingbirds every day when I’m at home. I don’t have any bird feeders, but the birds love to hang out in my backyard or buzz around my office window. Sometimes I’ll see several of them hovering nearby.

Lately I’ve been wanting to see if I could actually touch one… not in an aggressive way but by keeping myself in a very pure-of-heart state and inviting them to connect. They can dart around very quickly, so if they don’t want me to touch them, there’s no way I’d be able to.

About a week ago, one was flying in circles around my head about 12 inches from my face, but that’s the closest she came. I was trying to get her to land on my finger, but I wasn’t even sure if that would work. Hummingbirds have such little feet that they seem to like perching on the thinnest twigs, and my finger might be hard for them to grip (without injuring me, that is).

Then yesterday I was finally able to pet one for the first time.

A friend stumbled upon a hummingbird sitting cozily in her nest in a tree, just a few feet from my backdoor and right at our eye-level. I’d never seen that nest before. It was a tiny nest, just big enough for the hummingbird to sit in it with her head and beak hanging out on one side and her tail feathers hanging out the other side.

I said hello to the hummingbird and asked if I could pet her. She didn’t say no, so I figured she was okay with it.

She seemed very content as I gently ran my fingers along her back.

Then after a minute or two, she flew up and hovered around the nest, as if to invite us to take a closer look. When we looked in the nest, we saw that it contained two tiny eggs. We were both adorified. I smiled and told the hummingbird there’s no need to worry and that her eggs were safe.

This morning I went out to see if she was still there. It’s very windy out, so I wasn’t sure if she’d be in the nest. Sure enough, she’s still there, presumably keeping her eggs warm. I pet her again, and as soon as I did so, she opened her beak as if to say hi.

I’ve never been able to pet a hummingbird before, so I think it’s really cool that this intention was able to manifest. It only took a few weeks between setting the intention and seeing it manifest.

To me this experience also has a special symbolic, dream-like meaning. Lately I’ve been feeling super happy and joyful; everything in my life is flowing beautifully. I’ve also been eating 100% raw for the past 2 weeks, which often leaves me feeling blissful. Hummingbirds are a symbol of joy, so symbolically it’s like I was able to touch joy directly instead of just having it circulate around me.

I don’t know if this post will hold any meaning for you, but it was a happy experience I wanted to share. Hummingbirds are really cute.

Now wasn’t that lovely?  If you have any stories about relationships with birds please share them with us. Stories like this are good for the soul and we can all do with them!

A True Story.

In 2003, police in Warwickshire , England , opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog.  The dog had been locked in the shed and abandoned.  It was dirty and malnourished, and had quite clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a female greyhound, to the Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, which is run by a man named Geoff Grewcock, and known as a haven for animals abandoned, orphaned, or otherwise in need.

Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust.  It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.  They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

Jasmine, however, had other ideas.  No one quite remembers how it came about, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary.  It would not matter if it were a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting animal.  Jasmine would just peer into the box or cage and, when and where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff relates one of the early incidents.  “We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line.  One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross.

They were tiny when they arrived at the centre, and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee.  Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them.”

“But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits.  She takes all the stress out of them, and it helps them to not only feel close to her, but to settle into their new surroundings.  She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs, and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose.”

Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary’s resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born.

The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, fifteen chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and fifteen rabbits – and one roe deer fawn.

Tiny Bramble, eleven weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field.  Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster-mum role.  Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection, and makes sure nothing is matted.

“They are inseparable,” says Geoff.  “Bramble walks between her legs, and they keep kissing each other.  They walk together round the sanctuary.  It’s a real treat to see them.”

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life.

When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely.

She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.

Pictured from the left are: “Toby”, a stray Lakeland dog; “Bramble”, orphaned roe deer; “Buster”, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; “Sky”, an injured barn owl; and “Jasmine”, with a mother’s heart doing best what a caring mother would do…and such is the order of God’s Creation.

And, just in case you wondered, Snopes.com has verified the truth of this wonderful story and the reality of these photographs which accompany the story – so you can pass this story on, and help make someone else’s day to be just a little brighter!

We were training our dog in fieldwork and I was required to hide behind a tree so that I wouldn’t distract the dog with my presence.

After about 15 minutes I began to feel rather bored. But then I heard a bird chattering madly so I looked up into the tree’s canopy above.

A little brown bird was chatting up a storm.  He was going crazy and I realized that he was communicating with his mate nearby – warning her of my presence beneath the tree.

He was full of anxiety and kept hopping from branch to branch chattering all the while.

I wanted to allay his panic so I started whistling a repetitive bird-call.

Immediately the panic abated and within minutes a little bird – possibly his mate – hopped onto a branch just above my head and looked at me quizzically, head to one side.

To this minute I wonder what intrigued her.  What on earth was my whistling communicating to her?  What did I say to her? I must have been sending some message because there was a definite response.

Obviously I don’t know what it was – but what I do know is this;  there is a way to communicate with animals. If only we could find out how!

If you have had any sort of experience communicating with birds or animals please tell me about it.  It’s such a fascinating field and I would love to hear your story.