Month: September 2025

Horse whispering

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As part of Katy’s zootherapy course, she has a few practical stages. This weekend was one of them. As always, I was Katy’s right hand man while she’s still at limited mobility. She was frustrated at not being to participate in everything, but it is what it is, and I got unexpectedly called into a few activities. Horses are… big, empathetic, predictable but unpredictable, tame but wild, won’t put up with this shit, large fragile prey animals. We spent two days trying to understand how to interact and build a rapport with them, but at the same time project enough confidence and truth that they’d defer to us. It was a long weekend, and not just because of the fact it was in France. This afternoon, something clicked just for a little while.

Also, judo chicken.

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Pops the bird is no more

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He’s not stunned, nor is he pining for the fjords. He’s passed on. He has ceased to be. He’s expired and gone to meet its maker. He is a late budgie. He’s bereft of life. He rests in peace. He’s run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible….

We were just having dinner when we heard a mad flap of wings – not uncommon – then a set of squeaks that sounded like one of Byron’s toys but tapering off – that was uncommon. We looked and Pops was lying on the bottom of his cage, feet up.

We’re sad and not sad. We’ve been expecting this for a while now. He’s been pleasant background noise since we got him. We’ve never been able to interact with him since we got him and his mate 10 years ago – and he wasn’t a spring budgie even back then. He’s survived on benevolent neglect and his inner anger with everything and everyone for years. The only thing he seemed to like was having a cat sleep on his cage and trying to outsing the outside birds and be louder than the ambient noise level.

I am going to miss him – the flat will definitively be quieter. I won’t have to mute my videoconf calls anymore because the bird is too shrill and it hurts people’s ears. But at the same time it might get too quiet at times.

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