Almost Like Feeding Cattle
I like to evaluate how I use my time. There are times when I invest precious time in very ambitious dreams, even years of investment. Most of these times are rewarding however sometimes I am left with the realization that my time would be best spent on the everyday things that are just outside our door. One of those things is feeding animals.
I just came in from filling the bird feeder and laying out some feed for the deer. It is so reward-ing to use whatever assets you enjoy helping something smaller than yourself. My rule of thumb is that the smaller the animal the greater the reward just due to the tiny amount of effort it takes to make a disproportionately larger effect on a small life.
Feeding cows is more involved than feeding the bird however it is still gratifying. Lots of cattle farmers feed an assortment of feed ground into a very nutritious mix. This mixture is fed from a machine pulled by the tractor. I always just fed hay and then poured some grain into a feeder. I did this because I was able to be among the cattle and closely monitor them. When you are stuck in the cab of a tractor, you can miss the coughing or limping that could signal problems. I also wanted to have cattle my whole life and this was my chance to be among them and really live the life. I was not going to miss the opportunity.
Feeding cats is a different experience. Until recently, we open-fed our cats. In other words, they always had a food source, 24/7. We noticed that Clyde was embracing this lifestyle too much and had gained weight which makes him a candidate for feline diabetes. We have since careful-ly measured each cat’s portion and Clyde has lost a little weight. We are much more involved in cat mealtimes and have noticed that cats have almost-human eating habits. The most obvious similarity is they eat socially. When Clyde gets fed, Lizzie and Clifford want something too. Clyde would prefer to eat alone however if we feed Lizzie and Clifford separately, they leave their dish and try to eat from Clyde’s dish.
Bird feeding is unique as we want the birds more than they need the food we provide. We are part of a survey of birds too which creates a need to be more involved with them. We count the birds that visit the feeder each weekend and the numbers are stable, which leads me to believe they are the same birds. The only variant is the number of Juncos that visit and whether we get a cardinal or two to share their weekend with us.
No matter the animal, providing for them is an enjoyable experience. I am writing this column before work, so I need to get a move on as I still have the deer to feed before I leave. They do not understand the difference that 20 degrees below means, they just know they are hungry. It is almost like feeding cattle again.
