5 Reasons to connect with animals

Either you're an animal person or you're not. Either you're a nature person or you're not. There's somethings that there really are only one of two categories that you can fall in. Me? I'm an animal lover. I love pretty much most creatures. Even the ones that I have a healthy fear respect for, I love how they play a part in the whole food web/ ecological circle of things. It's so neat how things connect.  I realize that this doesn't come so naturally to everyone. My family, for the most part, are not pet people. But in our few years since setting up an urban homestead, I've come to appreciate how so very important it is to connect with your animals. Since building up this relationship with the critters, our family is finally starting to see some major benefits.

5. Therapy 

When you get to connect with your critters, there's this unspoken calmness. Physically connecting, petting them, letting them eat out of your hand, holding them... Even just watching them interact with the other animals is therapeutic. There's this sense of community with animals and when you are a part of that community, it just seems to have this calming effect on you. Getting accepted by them is like you're one of the cool kids. Watching them play with one another, jump, nuzzle and just enjoy the now helps you to focus in on the now. And you don't have to have a farm full of animals to reap this particular benefit. Before our family acquired our first flock of chickens, I'd often take the kids to a local petting farm. If you live in Southeast Michigan, I highly recommend Domino's Petting farm in Ann Arbor, MI. It's bursting with new life every spring. Get a cup of carrots or feed and go play with the goats. 

4. Free Entertainment

Have you ever just watched chickens? They are hilarious. My rooster, Bill, picks up corn or flowers and gives one to each hen in his flock. Or he'll walk nonchalantly by the hens then jump one of them to perform his "rooster chores". The girls peck at one another, grooming each other. They will softly squawk at one another to let the others know the best place for a sand bath. And if one should get a hold of worm, watch out! It's off to the races! They go chasing one another around the field trying to get the prize, as if there aren't other worms to catch. Pretty soon an hour has gone by and you feel more entertained than that $15 movie theater ticket you wasted your time on. A prancing goat and a waddling duck provide just as much of endless fun and entertainment.

3. A Sense of Responsibility

This benefit is not so much for you, the adult who has enough responsibilities to last three life times. Rather, this benefit is for the kiddos. In a "me first, I want it now" type of world, working with animals can provide a means of instilling a sense of responsibility in your child as well as the importance of investment. As much as I love all of our critters, there isn't one critter that isn't pulling is weight around here (more on that in number 2). An animal requires care, time, patience, food, water, cleanliness, and so on. And if you want to have the produce of that animal, you have to take care of it. Once a child is aware of that animal as a living, breathing being that needs things to be happy, they slow down and develop important skills that are so lacking in today's society. They develop things like empathy, vigilance, a routine. My kids are so happy to see how they help the animals grow and stay healthy. Sometimes we get a sick or injured animal. My daughter has learned to be quite the capable nurse. She has learned how important it is to keep a look out for infection or discomfort. Since animals can't talk, the kids have learned the other ways that animals communicate their feelings and will let me or my husband know when something isn't quite right. They've also developed self control as a result of caring for our animals. When babies are born, it's so hard to resist picking up the cute little fuzz balls and giving them a quick cuddle. However, just like with newborn humans, outside exposure for newborn animals can leave them open to some dangers. You can't just pick them up. Sometimes it takes even more self control to put down whatever they are playing with and make sure that the animals are fed, watered, comfortable, and protected. 

2. Products

Vegetable gardens are great at rewarding your hard work. You get to eat fresh food that you labored over all summer long. And nothing tastes better than fresh picked fruits and veggies. Now add to it the fertilizer that you harvested from your animals, the compost that they helped create, or the fresh milk and eggs that you can collect daily.  And happy, loved animals make better tasting food than factory animals. Don't believe me? Try this: Go to your local market and pick up some eggs. The mass produced, on sale for .99 eggs. Then go to your local farmer and pick up a dozen of those farm fresh eggs. This should be someone that when you pull up in their driveway, you see the chickens out foraging for bugs and weeds. Now go home and crack the store bought egg in one bowl and the fresh egg in another. See the color difference? All that orange-y goodness is showing you that chicken is loved from the inside out. She's not one of 12,000 chickens milling around on a concrete floor scratching at the other chicken's poop. Or worse yet, in some cage where she's not even allowed to get up and walk around. She's got a human who protects her and feeds her. 
      I get complaints all the time when I mention that we drink goat milk. "Doesn't it taste weird?" "That stuff doesn't even smell good! How could you drink it?" Again, the stuff you get in a store is the mass produced version of the real thing. I use my goat's milk to make fresh coffee creamer, cheese, and milk for my cereal. We use it in baking. I prefer not to drink it straight, but the husband and girl child love it! Why does it taste so different? Elsa is one loves (and spoiled) goat. She get's to roam around and eat weeds and leaves all day long. Not to mention that she and my billy, Oreo, keep all the poison ivy to a minimum. What could be better than that?

1. You Are Needed

My favorite part of the day is when I go out to the animals and I have ducks and chickens running up to me begging like a bunch of puppies. These creatures that are carefree all day long are eager to see me when I show up. Realistically I know they just want me for my food, but even so, it's a great feeling. My nanny, Elsa, came to us so skittish that she took my husband on a brisk 10 acre run through our property the first day we got her. She had very minimal human contact at the farm we got her from. It has taken over a year to get her to be calm and let me lead her to the milking stand. Every once in a while, she'll even come up to me. Elsa and I connect on a very personal level: We are both very shy, but very food motivated. Providing treats is the way to making friends with us.

So get out there! Make friends with the animals. You don't have to own them to get the benefits of being with them. Just understanding their place in your life really goes a long way.

Questions about farm life? Have a story of your own? Share below in the comments.

Photo Credits:
 Jarren Simmons

Jenny Hill