Month of Gratitude, Day 28: Critters

I'm grateful for the animals that we call "ours."

This is Lucy.  Boy oh boy, did this terrific old swaybacked gal change the course of things in life.  

Right around the time my youngest kid was getting her driver's license, a very bean-up-the-nose question popped into my head . . . "Now that you are not tied to picking up anyone from school every single weekday at 3:00 . . . WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?!"  Within the space of a hearbeat, "Learn to ride horses!" popped out of my mouth.  So I started a weekly hour-and-a-half trek from our house out to Five Brooks Ranch in Pt. Reyes National Seashore.  And fell in love.  With all horses.  And especially with Lucy.   That horse was the best mix of kindness, orneriness, fun and patience that I ever could have hoped for.  We rode for hours and hours out on trails alone, and never had a single trouble.  She was like some kind of wise old guardian of the trail.  

And so, when that same youngest kid was graduating from high school, another bean-up-the-nose propulsion kicked in:  we need to move closer to the horses.  Which we did.  And then, we bought Lucy.  Who remained the very best horse on earth, even through her retirement with a bum knee, and until we had to put her down in December, 2005.  THANK YOU, LUCY, for your terrific spirit, for your strength, your tenacity, your patience, your companionship, your life.  I'm privileged to have gotten to share some of it.

When we moved to West Marin, more bean-up-the-nose ideas began germinating.  One was, "Beekeeping!!!"  So we took classes and got information at an awesome store up in Sebastopol called Bee Kind . . . got all the supplies there . . . and almost five years ago got our first "boxes" of bees and their queen (yes, boxes!  the bees come in a shoe-box sized wood frame box with screen mesh on the sides!  cool!!) and installed them in our backyard.

Here are the two hives' boxes, in the middle of summer . . . when honey production is high.  (The two layers of half-sized boxes on top are just for honey.  The "deeps" on the bottom are where the queen lays the eggs, where the eggs are guarded over by bees until they become bees themselves.  There's a lot of honey in the deeps, too.)

Here's a close-up of some of the gals at their front door, waiting to get into the hive to bring in the stores of pollen and nectar they've gathered out in the fields, within a three-mile radius of the hive.  

Clarke is the beekeeper extraordinaire of the family.  For the first couple of seasons, it was both of us out there together.  Then, after a season when we gathered the honey a little late and the gals were a tad testy about that (like, trying to crawl up your pant-leg to say, "BACK AWAY FROM THE HONEY!"), I got a bit hinky.  Now, Clarke is the man.  This year, he harvested five gallons of honey from the two hives -- when the typical year renders one or maybe two.  The bees love Clarke.  Thank you, bees, for the wonder of how you work your lives.  It has been amazing to learn about how you operate, to see your activities every day when I'm driving up the driveway, to hear you, to smell your honey, and to get to harvest it and eat it and share it with others.

This is The Black Kitty.  

That's her name.  She has other, more formal names.  But ever since she came to live with us as a kitten from the Oakland animal shelter almost 15 years ago, she has simply been, "The Black Kitty."  She has been an indoor kitty, and does not seem to mind that.  Except for the time she decided to take a stroll out the open attic window and fell four stories.  NOT A SCRATCH.  She is a trooper, a butterball, a paper-loving, affectionate goof who somehow knows every single Saturday morning that today is, in fact, Saturday -- which is her ritual time to get brushed.  And she will meow at you until you do.  But just on Saturday.  Thanks, Black Kitty, for being the first and oldest of all the animals in our tribe, for hanging in there with us for all this time.

This is The Grey Kitty.  

Same story as The Black Kitty:  she has names, but they are never used. She is simply The Grey Kitty.  And she is the boss of the house.  She tells The Black Kitty what to do, where to go, when and what she can eat.  She even keeps the dog in line.  And us.  The Grey Kitty is tiny and mighty, and for nearly 14 years has been running the house well.  Thanks, Grey Kitty, for being your mighty self, and for deigning to live with us all this time.

And this, as you know from previous posts, is Gracie.  

Before we got Gracie, I used to laugh at and be irritated by people who talked about their dogs.

Now look at me. 

Which is a good lesson:  be careful about what you mock.  Because odds are, you're going to turn into it yourself.  

Of course, Gracie is the best dog in the world.  (Even though she's not.  Oh my goodness, this girl has got issues.  Which bump against MY issues.  Which apparently, according to our dog-whisperer vet, is the whole point.)  

Gracie popped into our lives as a seven-month-old rescue dog.  She's now almost eight years old.  Over that time, she has provided endless guarding and entertainment, racked up vet bills, driven across the country with us, traveled up and down the West Coast from here to Whidbey over and over again, and been a completely loyal and nutty wonder throughout.  She, as our real kids will tell you, is the kid we love the most.  That is just a joke, of course.  (Well, pretty much.)

Thank you, Gracie, for the being that is you.  All the way down to the bottoms of your feet pads.  You are a trial, a gift, a wonder, a friend.  Couldn't imagine these past years without you.

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CONTEST ENDS NOVEMBER 30!!!!  Remember to post a comment here about what YOU'RE grateful for!  You'll be entered in a drawing to receive Bean Up The Nose Art goodies.  Blog, tweet, or post on your Facebook page about this Month Of Gratitude, and you'll get five additional drawing entries.  THANKS FOR PLAYING!!!!