Jenny and Ludwig (an animal story)
I run a ranch here, and I like my animals and pets. Observing animal behavior is a part of understanding them, and some of the things I have observed are worth talking about.
Today brought an event of interest, revealing how animals project their own standards on other animals. I have a small dachshund-cross dog, Ludwig (another abandoned animal rescue) that I am just getting house broken. Because Ludwig likes to run off, and there are dangers to a small dog as him on the loose, I walk him on a leash to do his “business”.
This afternoon, the cattle were all up behind the house at the pens when we walked. Included in the herd is a lone female donkey named (imaginatively) Jenny. Ludwig and Jenny have been curious about each other, but wary of getting too close. This afternoon, they were within a foot of each other, across the fence. Jenny reached out and ate some grass from a tuft next to a fence pole. Ludwig saw this, and wanted to eat some of whatever Jenny was having. However, he would not get any closer than about a foot away, and he kept snatching at a few sprigs of grass and pulling back.
I took him for a walk later on this evening, and he dragged me over to the very same spot he was at previously, and I watched him sniff and explore through the fence the spot that Jenny was eating from. Of course, he found nothing but more grass there, but it is obvious that he thought that the donkey would have tastes parallel to his own, and thus whatever it was eating would be something he, too, would like.
Probably Ludwig still believes that, and just regards not finding anything as being caused by Jenny consuming all that was available, not because she was eating ordinary grass. Who would eat grass in preference to meat and bugs?
Later, I will write my story about the Longhorn cow and the baby rabbit.