Lady

When we lived in Andover, we had a typical middle class life. Dave worked in the electronics industry, and after TJ was born, I stayed home and was a full time mother and homemaker. There were a lot of things going on at that time; the Vietnam war, women’s consciousness raising groups, and my mother in the last stages of alcoholism.
In spite of all these things, the first year of TJ’s life was completely happy for me. I had never been so content. I was glad to be staying home again with my family, perfectly content to cook and clean and mother. I had gotten over my need to be out working in the world. I had discovered that there was a deep contentment in my heart being just a stay at home mom.

It was soon after TJ’s birth in 1970 that I discovered Adelle Davis. Little did I know how much that discovery was going to change my life! At first I was completely absorbed in learning about nutrition and in learning to cook dense-nutrient food. I made the three older kids stick out their tongues so I could see if there was a crack which indicated lack of B vitamins. And of course there was, so the poor malnourished kids were cooked liver and onions; and they were filled with yogurt, brewer’s yeast, and cod liver oil! It was a huge change in their diets, but they went along with me. I had probably scared them with my own realization of how poorly we had been eating.

As a family, we stumbled on a way to get TJ to enjoy taking his daily cod liver oil. We had all clapped our hands for him and said “Yaaay!” when he obediently swallowed his first spoonful. From then on, he cheerfully took his “yaays” while we all cheered and clapped for him. And in my mind’s eye, I can still see him sitting in his high chair with his fists full of chicken livers, stuffing them into his mouth with gusto!

My kids were all so dear and sweet and patient with me. And they all really learned how important good nutrition is. They accepted what I learned, and for the most part, they ate what I served up. (Jeff did sneak his liver down to the dog quite a bit.)

That brings me to Lady. Lady became our dog when TJ was about 2 and a half years old. One day he and I were out for a walk and we saw a thin, half-starved, frightened dog, barking at a postman. We called her over, and she came up just close enough to TJ so that he could touch her and then she would back off. But because of him, she followed us home.

She came into the house! Somehow we get her in, probably by offering her food. She was very thin and had an ear infection. The boys loved her right away, but we decided to take her to the man down the street who worked for the Humane Society.

However, as luck would have it, he said the Humane Society was closed for the weekend and we would have to call the police. When I related this to the boys, they produced a great uproar, begging us not to take her to the police, saying that the police would kill her! Even though we knew better, we decided to keep her over the weekend. And of course, that meant that we would never let her go.

We took her to the vets and had her ear treated, and we fed her well. And of course she was showered with love and affection from the four boys. We soon learned that she was a Lady in every sense of the word. She was gentle and loving – a perfect addition to our family.

Soon she came into heat, and we endured a front porch of dogs constantly underfoot, until that phase was over. Then we took her to the vets again to be spayed. She had become our dog, and she was to stay with us the rest of her life.

Lady must have been abused by a man in uniform, because she would go into a frenzy of barking whenever she saw one. This suited Jeff just fine, because at this time in his life he had gotten involved with some friends who smoked pot in the park near our house. Lady served as a great early-warning system if there were any cops coming on the scene.

This involvement of Jeff with friends who were not a good influence was one of many reasons we decided to leave Andover and move to the farm. We were also angry and disillusioned about America’s continued involvement with the Vietnam war. But most of all, we wanted to obtain for our family a steady supply of good food. We wanted to provide uncontaminated meat and vegetables, and we wanted to live near the land.

We were right in the middle of the “back to the land” movement of the 70′s. We got caught up in it wholeheartedly, partly because of my newfound realization of the importance of nourishing, clean food to the health and well being of my family, and partly because Jody and I wanted to be on a farm, in the midst of animals and growing things and close to the cycles of nature.

I remember as clear as a bell the day when Jody and I sat at our kitchen table and looked at some issues of Mother Earth News. We soaked in all the stories of farm life, and we eagerly searched the classifieds in the back, reading about farms for sale and wishing we could buy one. I remember very well how we conspired to “talk Dave into it.” Which we did, but Dave came back with an idea of his own – we should buy a farm in Canada! In fact, we should go to Nova Scotia where his paternal grandmother had come from.

Well, this seemed even more exciting and romantic than our own dream had been. A farm in a New Land! We were all sold on it, except of course, TJ, who was too little to understand and merely went along with the crowd.

Poor little TJ learned more about what this move meant however, when we gave away all our houseplants to the brother and sister who lived next door. That was just before we left, and TJ was sad and cried. I guess he hadn’t realized that we would have to leave them behind. Dave and I were surprised to see how much these plants meant to him. We had no idea at that time of the spiritual connection that these plants had with us. Only TJ, who was so recently arrived from the spirit world, “trailing clouds of glory”, knew and felt the connection. All the rest of us had forgotten our oneness with all life. But being on the farm would help us remember once again.

Lady had settled in with our family beautifully. I don’t remember how we decided to name her Lady, but the name suited her perfectly. She was a gentle and loving companion to all of us. And she was beautiful with her long grey hair and her soft brown eyes. Our love for her grew with every passing day. Every day we began to see how much our family needed her, and what a gift she was for us.

At the time she followed us home, we had accepted another stray animal – a small black and white short haired dog whom we named Gypsy. Gypsy had been kept in a college dorm by a group of kids and brought up on pizza. She was fat and unhealthy, and she had a habit of nipping us with teeny little bites, a perfect way of showing a doggy passive-agressive nature. She was definitely not a likeable dog. We also found out, to our dismay, that she threw up whenever she was driven even a short distance in the car. Taking her to the farm in Nova Scotia was out of the question. Fortunately, we found a home for her with a kind woman who took in problem dogs and promised to keep them until she found a home for them. She accepted Gypsy with some misgivings, and we didn’t have to lie too awfully much to get her to take the little nipper.

And so we started out for the farm with Lady. She was to become a perfect farm dog. She always stayed around the farmyard, never running away or chasing any chickens. And she loved to go for walks in the woods with whoever would take her. On these walks, she never went very far away from us, running only a little way off to investigate enticing smells but then coming right back to be close to us again. Yes, Lady turned out to be our perfect farm dog. She was a precious beginning for our farm adventure.

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