Saturday, January 26, 2008

Cookie and the Ratón Pérez

Cookie is a pure black cat with a wonderful disposition. We found her when she was a day old in a hole in the road with her brother. We brought them home and gave them to a strange little dog someone had abandoned that we had taken in a few weeks before. The dog looked like a fox and mothered everything she found. She was still a puppy herself but was already caring for and nursing two baby rabbits. The kittens took to her with no trouble and grew to be strong. I don’t think any of them knew what type of animal they were. We found a home for Cookie's brother and we kept Cookie. Our children were very young then and dressed her up in dolls clothes, pushed her in a pram and even sat on her by accident from time to time. She never scratched and just put up with every thing. She followed them everywhere.

I don’t know what they have in other countries, in USA we have a tooth fairy, and here in Spain they have a mouse called the Ratón Pérez. When you lose a tooth you put it on the windowsill at night and the Ratón will change it for money. Ever since our daughter Ami was old enough to have a tooth fall out and learn about the Ratón she was very frightened that Cookie would catch the poor little mouse and eat it. You see Cookie was a very good hunter and she would always bring her catch home to show us first, and only then she would eat the whole thing, as it was meant to be in nature. It makes me sad to see a cat catch a bird, lizard, rabbit and the like but I know that is how it was meant to be in the wild, as long as they eat their prey and not just play with it and then leave it on the floor. It is a natural instinct.

When Ami lost her first tooth we put it in the window, as we should, and in the morning we heard shrieks and crying as she came running into our room. She held in her hand a large dead tree rat. She was crying so hard about what she had always feared but she did eventually say, “well at least he left the money first”. Lenox had of course snuck in during the night and switched the tooth for a coin. We tried to explain to her that the Ratón was much more important than the money because he had so many more children to see and then we told her that the poor dead creature wasn’t the Ratón Pérez after all, but a tree rat that Cookie had brought home to show her. So it all had a happy ending, except for the rat of course, but I’m not sure Ami ever quite got the moral of the story.
(Bottom Picture: Cleo)

Friday, January 25, 2008

Dog Pictures


Here are two of our dogs, enjoying the Spanish countryside. The photographer appears to favour the Briard. ¡Así es la vida!

New Year - New Energy!

I am sorry that it has been so long since this has been updated. Since the ANIMO center has closed I have just been doing consulting and my daughter Amber has been giving a few presentations. There are so many new groups starting and it seems that there is now money available for AAT programs. I still recieve about ten call a week from people that are just starting out. What I would like to do is have everyone in Spain that is involved in ATT send in a small resume of their program such as: type of disability, number of students, location, experience, status (non-profit, paying, profession of staff, when you started and what type of aid you receive). I would like to have a data-base to help get to know what is being offered and to have this information available to everyone so we can all help and to have a support group to help with questions and to stay up to date on what is happening in this field.
I have been recovering from an accident and an unknown fungus that I caught in the hospital which we have only now been able to diagnose and treat but I am afraid that in the meantime the fungus has done major damage and left me fairly disfigured. I am learning to cope and would very much like to stay on top of what is going on and help where I may as it is all I have done my whole life and seeing the results has meant so much to me. You can E-mail me at brbrnapier (at) yahoo dot com. I will publish all information sent to me.