I think I could turn and live with animals,
they are so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented
with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind
that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
by Walt Whitman
Irrigation on a sheep farm near Arthurs Pass - New Zealand.
Hundreds of sheep are yarded for the annual drenching in the Wairarapa.
A sheep dog jumping over a fence in the Te Kuiti saleyards.
A Suri alpaca chews its cud in the Waikato.
Ruth the Jersey-cross cow is now surrogate mother to a five day old lamb on a lifestyle block near Tauranga.
11/12/05 @ 06:26