IT ALL STARTED WITH THAT CAMEL!

MIL'S ANIMAL FRIENDS...WHERE HE WRITES...

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Have you ever noticed in life how sometimes "one thing
leads to another?"

Well, I never started out to have a couple of dozen animals
watching me write every day! But it happened! And thereby
hangs a tale---you'll like---if you like to read.

A few years ago, I saw this book advertised---"WHERE THE
PAVEMENT ENDS," by Erika Warmbrunn. A frustrated actress
chucked it all and bicycled alone across Mongolia, China, and
Viet Nam. One of the absolutely best books I ever read!

She loved the Mongolians and they loved her...built her a YURT
right on the school grounds and talked her into teaching children
English...for a time.

As Amazon will do, they listed on their review "other similar
books you would enjoy." One was "WALKING THE GOBI,"
by Helen Thayer. This one, about a 63 year old adventuress,
and her husband, "nolens volens" (a legal term from LINCOLN'S
day, meaning "whether willing or unwilling"), agreed to go
along.

This book was almost better than "Pavement." Especially with
their two absolutely-essential-for-a-1900 mile-desert-crossing---
leased CAMELS---"TOM," and "JERRY." Yes, animals which
could go ten days without water, and thirty-five days without
food.

Now,  I came to love old Tom and Jerry, as I read the book,
forgiving them, as did Helen, for their laziness, clumsiness,
(one fell on their 750 gallons of water in bladders and
squashed them all)----their impudent/spitting ways when riled;
their need of Listerine.

Why, several years after the expedition was over, Helen and
her "nolens volens" husband journeyed back to Mongolia
to see Tom  and Jerry, where they had been put out to
forevermore rest, like great race-horses (they had made
a BUNDLE for their owners, by Mongolian standards----)
when the camels saw Helen and hubby, they came running
across the pasture, doing their loud camel noises, in loving
recognition.

Well, these two camels won my heart, and what a great story!
One day, I impulsively said to the Beloved Editor: "You know,
I miss Tom and Jerry...what if I looked around in some shops
and bought me a little camel for the top of my bookshelf here?"

She smiled, as beautiful women do, and drifted off somewhere.
I figured I was sunk...no camel for me. But here she came "AS
BIG AS IKE," as the old saw went, holding the nicest camel
you ever saw---she'd had it stashed ever since our son gave
it for Christmas one year. It now sits on my bookshelf, the
forerunner of many animals that were to come....and get this:
he is about 13 inches tall! He is yet...unnamed...

I told everyone about my Thayer book, my camel, and how
much I loved Tom and Jerry....But...I found quite a few folks
who had ridden camels...some even in Egypt...some in zoos,
and some at circuses....I never found ONE person who likes
camels.

Can't we put up with bad manners, and animals that regurgitate
and spit it at you, when we consider their contribution to
world history?

But as I read books, and wrote about them....somehow it got
started---people started bringing me animals for my writing
place. I re-read an Olive North book, about her killing a
moose to feed her little cold family in British Columbia,,,
and.....

I've always liked "meese," so I ordered a big nice one for my
shelf. Our housekeeper is a dumpster-diver as a hobby and she
brought me a beautiful duck, carved out of a burl. Someone
had tossed it.

See, in front of Snoopy, a little tiny white FISH....looks almost
like a tooth, at a.little distance, and it keeps reminding me
of my emergency trip to the dentist in August.

My son is searching for a little skunk for the shelf...I've spotted
a rooster I want---about seven inches tall. Yes, I've written
about both roosters and skunks...

I saw some cow and bull bronze salt shakers...and a mama
elephant and baby, but the wife thinks I've got enough.

Here's what people have brought: a mother hen, a little
bronze giraffe, a little chicken in clear plastic, a howling
dog Indian carving, a turtle, and a rattlesnake my son made
in CLAY 101.

There's the burl duck and several others; there's little tiny
penguin over there, and of course the little tiny fish, that
looks like a tooth. Don't forget my Donald Duck!

I noticed a retired-college-professor friend of mine has a
neat writing place and desk and he has several really
cool animals on his desk....one that caught my eye was
an owl about eight inches tall.

Now, I must do a story on an OWL. I liked his and one
certainly would enhance my collection...if I can sneak
it in, without management seeing it.

Oh, did I mention the photos of the most-important
ones---my two little boys, and Beloved Donna.

Interesting how big a part animals play in our journey on
this earth.

*****30*****
BY MIL
09/13/14