No More Animals

2ndUse From Dogma to New Joy

So we have the 'limit plus one' for animals on our property (county code). The animals are well-cared for and we have no complaints from our neighbors.

We told our four girls, "No more cats or dogs," even as animals pass in our family we aren’t replacing them right away.

My daughter Annie is 17.  Finding her ‘own way’ very quickly. She is so full of life and creation.  She has a boy friend, Jess, and they are quite serious and perhaps he will be the one and only, the gods know for sure.

They got a puppy, Ruger, yep named after a firearms maker. Jess's passion is to hunt; he does so very responsibly. They promised us that the dog was theirs to care for, they would take care of everything, and for  most of the time he will be at Jess’s parents house. I must admit that they are brilliant custodians but needless to say, we have a new dog.

I must admit Ruger has added vitality to our household, along with some chewing.

A typical joyful Ruger greeting

Friendship gate

2^nd Use from acknowledging  property lines to removing boundaries

In the 90’s I went to Ireland with my friend and boss Patrick Murphy to fly fish for salmon.

As we went from property to property following the stream with an Irish fishing gilly, John, I noticed that there were ladder-like step structures used to cross over wire fences that kept the sheep and cows in but not the neighbors out. I asked Patrick about these constructions from neighbor to neighbor. But what if the relationship changed with your neighbor? Patrick said with a bit of a bollix grin- "they are easily removed."

Today, we have great neighbors to our north. We are so much the same—sharing family, food, arts, and horticulture. I thought about the crossings between properties I saw in Ireland. "Hey Michael, what if we put a gate between our back yards so we don’t have to walk around to the front?" He liked the idea.

Photo by Rebecca Woulfe

 Michael and I made a friendship gate between our properties.

Photo by Rebecca Woulfe

This act acknowledged a relationship of trust and the future love between our families.  And then I heard a small voice in the back of my mind, "True, a bit of a commitment but the gate could always be locked."

We Laugh

Photo by Rebecca Woulfe

Halloween 2011

 2nd Use From Costume Accessory to Dad is "That Good"

Maura posing with wand

I told a dear friend, Shelley, that my daughter was Hermione Granger this year for Halloween. Shelley asked me if I took pictures because she wanted to see  Maura as Hermione. So Shelley is the inspiration for this blog.

As the story goes, Maura announced to us that she wanted to be the Hermione character from the Harry Potter series.  Why not? She is of Anglo Northern Irish decent so she looks the part. We can buy the Hogwarts costume at the WallyMartType store. The catch was she wanted a wand that was more like the movie version, and had rejected a store bought wand because it looked wrong, too twisted.

I, being a dad with a complete wood shop including a lathe, volunteered to make her a wand. But I wanted her there to watch and art-direct the project. Her delight, or perhaps relief, as she saw me set up the lathe and start to carve the wand, increased my resolve for the project. If you have ever watched something turned on a wood lathe it is magical in the way the wood takes shape as it is carved. Following her lead, we pretended it was a real magically empowered wand being made. The wand truly did have the power to create a shared moment and feelings of love between father and daughter. Needless to say she was thrilled.

The next evening my wife, Rebecca, told me that she noticed the wand being used as a substitution for a lost drum stick for a certain interactive video game.

Rebecca said to Maddie and Maura, "I bet daddy could make you a new drumstick the same way he made the wand."

Maura told Rebecca,” Oh ya, daddy could--he is that good!"

I have never received a more impactful review of my work in my life.

Maddie being a zombie

 

FYI

Maddie was a zombie cop and she designed her own costume and makeup.

A Moral Quandary

2^nd Use From a 'harmless' carney game to a lesson in life responsibility

My family has within our animal menagerie a number of aqua specimens. None were acquired by my wish, but at the time seemingly accidental, and all were adopted through carnival games.

We now have 2 gold fish and a yellow frog.

Our first aquatic ward was Cookie, a goldfish my daughter Maura won at the age of four at my wife’s work place during their ’Family Halloween Party’. I wasn’t concerned when Maura walked up to the carny-like table with flashy colored local grocery store type table cloth with bright colored water-filled glasses, and was handed a determinant number of ping pong balls. I thought the odds were 1/ 1000 she would win the grand prize—a feeder quality goldfish. We won—hurray—now I have a bait fish’s life to try and care for. I was committed to care for this fish by my early learning that every life is precious; I took this new charge very serious.

Maddie and Maura In costume, the day Maura won Cookie. Photo by Michael Fulks.

As dad, I am sage--all knowing of what is right and wrong, or so I was taught growing up.  I do think it is important as a father to be extra vigilant of accountability in my actions. My life actions are an example for my children; my wife taught me that children mimic our actions and to some extent find their life paths through parental actions, not through parental verbal commands or doctrine. She is right, always.

It has now been four years and three aquarium upgrades at about $900 to care for Cookie, and later to come company. I must admit I do feel success when visitors say, "Wow that is a huge goldfish." I feel like I am doing something right in that Cookie is thriving. 

Left to right: Marmalade the frog, Cookie and Scales the goldfish

 

Then my daughter Sarah was gifted a super Wally store frog from my other daughter, Annie. Knowing sisters, I am sure there was a fair amount of begging to get this frog. I rescued it from a teacup in a windowsill; it has been in the aquarium with Cookie for three years. The frog’s name is Marmalade.

They live well together, and are thriving—getting bigger and bigger in a nice 35-gallon set up. Everything was seemingly stable.

I have been watching, while caring for these animals over the years, and I see their consciousness. I started to feel a bit guilty; and questioning, must they live in such a small confined artificial environment? By having possession of these animals, am I sanctioning the practice of keeping these animals in a captive environment? Am I enabling the small vertebrate animal trade? I rationalize through conditioning; many people with limited resources seem to be quite fine and happy. Who am I to say?

It finally came to a head this year when we went to a county fair in Laramie County Colorado—surprise, surprise, surprise; they have a carnival area with rides and games. Madigan, throwing the same dam ping-pong balls, wins another goldfish and quickly names it Scales. You know if you name an animal then you own it and it becomes your responsibility.

Maddie wins Scales as my wife looks over to me in disbelief.

That’s it; no more ping-pong ball games for vertebrate prizes of any species.  I explained to my little girls that these seemingly harmless games are now prohibited for us. This is my new family law and I am putting my foot down. I explained how we would do our best to be responsible for the aqua pets we have in our possession as of now, but we have learned, It just ain’t right and we got to stop.

Photo of a typical tank of feeder goldfish at a pet store.

 

About the Editor

2ndUse From Exploration of a new Medium to Even Greater Admiration

For about 6 years I have been working and studying horticulture as a means of venting my crazy high physical energy and as possibly a form of esthetic expression.  I have always been a cook and enjoyed finding that I am drawn to making food from the dirt up. The surprise was finding that I was using my experiences as an installation artist in the gardens. I voiced to my wife that I would love to re-present my new explorations as art to the public. But I did not feel that the traditional white box of exhibition was a fit for this work.

My brilliant wife suggesting I do a blog. I didn’t jump on the idea right away since I am a bit digitally challenged.  Rebecca, my wife, is an educator. She has been engaged in digital graphics and printing since the beginning when the computer first became a tool for this industry. Her most resent work is in using the digital world to reach people needing or wanting access to education.

Rebecca recommended I take a class at Red Rocks Community College in Intro to Computer Graphics. This new information from the introduction class has opened up an entirely new world for me. With my exposure to the course work and a lot of my wife’s help I have started publishing this blog.  It started as a method to documenting my approach to horticulture, but has opened me up to working with the social media as a medium for my work as an artist.

However I am still not comfortable with my writing skills and I must confess that I do not publish anything without passing it by my editor. So I offer my apologizes in advance for any grammatical errors. This blog entry is an exception and I did not have her look at it. I think that my wife’s modesty would have made her evaluation of this blog quite bias and surely the content of bragging about her would of been toned down.

My wife 'the editor' seen here cleaning out the kids’ trash from the back of the mini-van; and still smiling, I look at this image and think how wonderfully simple love is.