For the last year, I have been struggling with the notion that Nanette is passing information to me!! I simply couldn't get the logical side of my mind around it and in spite of my insistence on following Instincts and Intuition as being the best way forward. Damn it!!! This is the road I have trodden with Nanette herself, always finally relying on my own Intuition, which often lead in the opposite direction of the opinions of a 'professional trainer''.
This was hard to do sometimes although it bestowed courage where there was none!! I mentioned this for the first time, to a friend on the dog site 'Dog's & Co'. She responded with a positive remark which made me realise that I almost missed the Turning!!!
Well! ! Here we are and I didn't miss it after all!! Nanette has often gazed at me for very long periods.... and this happens now quite often. This has been going on for about a year....but it's only lately that I have begun to feel 'something' arriving ....it feels like a rush of Energy .....I feel compelled to turn around from my work and look at her and there she is, her eyes boring into me!! No , she doesn't hand me a note with a message on it but she makes me feel it's very important.
I am now learning to be receptive rather than self critical and a body of information arrives in some way......It's a bit like writing a Musical Work when I've often had the experience of writing the end of the piece or some other part of it when I intended to create the Beginning!! So it can....and often does...arrive outside any kind of sequence.
Recently, during a visit to the local Cafe with Nanette, I noticed something rather odd!! The Pigeons,,,,,,, who normally avoid the tables with owners and dogs sitting there together....were congregating freely around our table. They don't appear to be bothered by her and although in certain circumstances, she would make a game of chase with them, it was not so here!! She sat completely still, unperturbed and they pecked and clucked around us freely.
I thought no more of it until we got home. During the afternoon, something was ' bugging' me and I couldn't concentrate on my work. I felt her eyes boring into me....at 5pm, thoroughly fed up with my lack of ' inspiration', I went to the Cafe for an Aperitif.
I happened to pick up the local paper and received a real ' jolt' when I turned to the page on our town!! There was an article about a plan to ' allure, trap and gas' all the local pigeons because they are considered a ' nuisance' in the town!!! AH!!! Now i understood. I pondered over my glass of wine. The next day saw me go ....with Nanette...to the local office of the regional paper. This was the result, published the following day. quote....
Not content with killing more than a 100 million of our own species in the 20th century alone, we are now intent on making yet another animal extinct here in Southern France in the town of Vence. Shame on you Vencois!!!! You go to allure, then trap the pigeons and gas them!!! Do we not yet realise, that just like humans, animals have families, feelings, loyalties and a right to live.....yes , even in our towns!! We have stripped the land of natural habitats in our rapacious greed, so that many species are now nearly extinct and yet here in Vence, our friends the pigeons, who must live somewhere, are about to be sent to the gas chambers......anyone remember world war two?? It's only a pigeon....just a bird!! what is the fuss about?!! the fuss is about you and I !! Where is the Human Spirit with it's Compassion and Love for all our fellow creatures, Respect for all Life. Where indeed?? Remember the words of Mahatma Gandhi ..' The Greatness of a Nation and it's Moral Progress can be judged by the way it's Animals are treated' Dr Albert Schweitzer ' 'I am the Life which wills to live in the midst of Life which wills to live' !! J.B xx
