Kids and Animals

What is it about animals that attracts and mesmerizes children and us older children also?  We are drawn to the critters. Well at least I am.  We animal people have an extra spots in our hearts and souls that can only be filled with a critter or two.  We do our best to have a few and not become an animal collector or a hoarder. I find limiting the total number of animals to give proper care, love and enough personal time to gives value to the relationship. This is beneficial to meet my needs and meet the social needs of the animal.  Too many animals and there is not enough time to learn how to be social with humans and to be social with the animals species.  As an example the rules for dog to human interaction is similar to the canine world. The rules and social structure between dog to dog may be completely different.  Dogs smell body openings on other dogs that would get you slapped in human circles. Dogs sniffing human butts will not win social points with humans either.  Interaction between big dog to little dog seldom has the little dog winning. Some dogs are dog aggressive and people friendly or they also may be people aggressive. There have been cases of people that are people aggressive. May be there are more similarities than I first thought at first glance. I do know there are people that do not like animals. These people have my empathy but certainly do not have my support in any way. In fact I pity what makes them feel the way they do.

Our grandson William (Bubby) Stricker was two years old on April 15. The party was held on 4/18/10 to allow Papa Sweet time to be there. Julie booked a birthday party in one of the park system in the Cincinnati Metro park places, Parky's Farm. This is a demonstration farm. There are some of most farm animals. The list of animals includes ponies to ride, sheep, pigs, Llama, alpaca, goats, cattle, turkeys and the ubiquitous loose farm chickens. I saw a Bourbon Red Turkey, it is a gorgeous bird. The turkeys seen in Michigan are usually bronze or white varieties.   I never did figure out which breed is used as a butterball Thanksgiving turkey.

They have a horseshow arena, play structures outside and a hip roof barn for age appropriate climbing activities. This was a neat setup; they had slated stairways, slides and a ball area with Styrofoam balls resembling chicken eggs. There was a half wall where the balls were tossed over and you could imagine the hen laying the egg.  There were slides and all kinds of neat structures for kids. There was a party room for a "packed in lunch", presents opening and all the things that make a great birthday party for a two year old. Older children liked the activities also.

The biggest entourage hit was walking out with the animals. We were allowed in to selected pens. I have mentioned the turkeys. There was a pen within the pen where the tom was locked up while the toddlers were allowed in to pet the hen. I do not know how many animals they must sort through to get the people tolerant non-excitable ones they have. Any one raised on an animal based farm knows spring time raises male hormones to a high level.  Tom turkeys strutting and showing the male aspect can move real quickly. It was a good choice to separate tom and kids. When let out this tom promenaded his full iridescent vibrant red-brown against the white fantail of his feathers. His deep red wattles and blue head skin was a kaleidoscope of the color spectrum. That is an image that I will remember for a long time.

Growing up we had turkey farms within a reasonable driving distance from us. In the spring one farmer would sell turkey eggs. My Mom and neighbor Kit would go get some to cook with. There was some ratio of one turkey egg was equal to four to six hen eggs. Whatever the ratio, the turkey eggs were much richer when used in baking, cakes or cookies. Bakery products were heavenly when they had turkey eggs used in the mixture.

There were extremely tame goats out in pens. These were the most tolerant goats I have seen. Children could walk up to goats lying down and pet and hug if they wished and they would just lay there. It was amazing. No pushing or climbing on people as I have seen at some petting / feeding farms. There also was no available grain to purchase to tempt the goats or people feeding to encourage goat butting and climbing to get that extra kernel of grain. If they were eating hay they would just stand there and let children walk all around and not show any activity at all. One of the neatest personal memories or mental imprinted images was in the goat enclosure. Bubby was standing next to this adolescent alpine goat had its front legs up in the flat part of the hay manger. There was a metal rack that would hold about a slab of timothy grass hay. There was a four month old Boer goat at the other end. He was so small he was standing in the manger. Bubby was picking up the dropped timothy and putting it back in the rack and manger. It was incredible to watch, he got so excited he was squealing and jumping up and down unable to contain his joy.  It is the simple things that complete your soul and make it a great memory.

We walked to where both Holstein steers were kept.  Everyone had a chance to pet a cow and get a cow tongue kiss. They all loved it.  Walking back Bubby discovered the John Deere tractor. It made his day he was grinning ear to ear and standing tall for a short two year-old. It must show that Bubby and I are best buds. He talks on the phone when he has a need to talk to Papa.

It is the association of animals with children that ensures the next generation knows how to fairly treat, care for, do proper husbandry and to exist with our brothers and sisters of the animal world.   Love is a learned skill acquired by watching our elders. How they care is how we cared when we transferred our love of animals to them.

There are local opportunities to interact with animals in a farm setting. Calder Dairy Farm Carleton, MI (734-654-2622) has a real down home feel. This is a great place to see how a farm works. If you show up just before 4:00 pm you can watch the cows get milked. At 3:00 pm they bottle feed the calves.  They also have an on farm store to meet your milk and ice cream cravings. This is a working farm with all the aromatic effects. They do have rabbits, ponies, Longhorn cattle, Beef cattle (Holland Dutch belted). It is a great afternoon out.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.          
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.