Watching self stitch a Cloth called Shelter.   as I shelter in this modest home,  but in comparison,  luxurious.  Shelter.   Shelter and Safe are close sisters.   Safe meaning many things.  For some, Safe could mean familiar.  Something you 

Know.   that is reliable.  always stays the same.

so while vast numbers of human beings ………….immigrate………here,  my thoughts are about the coming winter.   Evan,  the wood guy,  the young man with his 4 year old son along,  brought the rest of the wood tonight.

 

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Just behind Chinche is Tay's crate.  It's 30inches high,  42 long, 27 1/2 wide.  A Big crate.  But it was what she knew when she came here.  Since a puppy,  her crate had been Her Space.  Dorothy, the Animal Shelter person who raised her up till she came here,  had her sleep in this crate.  Had her go to her crate for her meals.   The crate is Tay's space and she understands it as such.  

In the beginning,  when she was being rowdy and didn't understand things,  i would say 

HOUSE!

and she would rush into the crate and take a time out.  We haven't done that in a long time now.  We have come to understand each other and there is no need.  But still…the crate has been where her bowl is and in the morning and evening she eats in her crate.  Chinche has a bowl in the kitchen,  around the corner from Tay and her crate.

At first,  the crate seemed incredibly Intrusive in this small space of my Shelter.  Pushed up against the futon couch.  Just next to the front door.   Last year i brought that wooden box inside for stove wood.  Further squashing up space…it was even more between the door and the crate.  Also only allowed for a minimum of wood inside at any time.

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From a Different Point of View,  the crate HAS served other purposes.  It's where stuff sits that will be taken to the Libray.  Where the basket is that hold my work gloves,  the dog brush,  and little things that need to go out to the Albatross…wire and stuff.  Sometimes, like today,  when i've done laundry,  the laundry basket,  till i take it to hang on the line.

She no longer sleeps in it.  All summer she has chosen to sleep outside.  Most likely,  when it becomes colder,  that will change?   I don't know.  It's up to her.  But

i'm thinking,…..do we need the crate any more?   If i took it apart,  she can sleep anywhere.  Inside or out.   I could choose a designated place for her to eat.  Put her bowl there.   Over time it would be ok.  

But…………What might that mean to her,  in terms of Shelter…in terms of her own Safe Space?  Her own Personal Space.?   I think.  

LATER

Goats won't come through the Corridor because of the New Wood which is just outside their Cooridor,  really no problem but for them such a CHANGE…all that Wood piled up along their fence,  so i go out and go In to the middle pen and call them and they come rushing and i scratch and  love them up,  being sure,  Each One,  even the ones that won't let me touch them….Arctica, Karma, Just Going,  even them…tho they won't let me,  they like it that i keep trying and they can still say NO!…so this….and more and more i think about Shelter…how Shelter says we are ok.  About how much i would wish this for every sentient being on this planet,  that we are just OK.  Not a Lot,  but just ok is enough and what is ok and what is enough and i think and the Goats are in and out of their Albatross which is really MORE than many human beings have tonight…it's dry.  it's Safe.

 

 

 

 

 

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18 responses to “so….Shelter.”

  1. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Hmmmmmmm…? Don’t know.

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  2. grace Avatar

    YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    YOU ARE
    HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  3. grace Avatar

    Just in time for the CRAZY STORMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. Nanette Avatar

    I put Mirrhi in a crate from when she was tiny, 6 weeks old. I made the kitchen our space for about 4-5 weeks, Moved my sewing machine and laptop out there so she became familiar with her new home, me and the house rules. When she slept, I crept away and did things in other parts of the house, and although she cried at first, she learnt that I always came back. I shut her in it at night and she waited patiently and quietly for me to come in the morning to let her out. As she got bigger and I could trust her to be in the rest of the house, knowing she would’nt chew things or pee, she would always go back to her cave, dragging her favourite toy, to nap. Then I started to put a gate across the space her crate was in, leave the crate door open and let her choose where to sleep…in or out. Like you, I thought often about letting her out at night, and worried and wondered how that might be for both of us, to sleep where she wanted, but worried about her playing with the cats all night ….they make a racket when playing chasey…and it felt like I’d be losing her puppyhood or something, I was aware of a feeling of loss if I released her from her crate. Earlier this year, just before she turned 3, I put her to bed as usual but left the gate open and thought I would just see. For a few nights she stayed in her crate area, then one morning I woke to find her on the floor beside my bed…and that’s where she sleeps now. We have the same ritual we did when she went in her crate, when it’s cold I tuck her up, and she doesn’t move all night…no cat games, no roaming around, asleep beside me on her bed on the floor. It’s lovely. She’s got on the bed a few times, so I just give her a cuddle and a snuggle and tell her she’s lovely, and she gets down again….thank goodness, I don’t want her on my bed. Long-winded story, sorry, but it might help you know what to do next.

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  5. julie Avatar

    Does she know how to soothe herself when distressed, without the crate?
    Sounds like her shelter is actually yours…you.

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  6. Donna wilkinson Avatar
    Donna wilkinson

    I agree. My shelter is very small but it is all mine (except for the tax man). And I am so thankful. Really thankful.. Especially today 9/11. Bless you Grace.

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  7. Mo Crow Avatar

    have had Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm” rolling through my head as you’ve been working on this cloth, from my favourite Dylan album “Blood on the Tracks”
    “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”
    1974 Bob Dylan
    you can read the lyrics here
    http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/shelter-storm

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  8. Liz Avatar

    What is shelter when madness can bring a hundred stories of concrete, steel and glass to the ground?
    I can only echo Mo’s oft-repeated refrain: Love is the answer

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  9. Martine Bos Avatar

    Have been thinking about shelter alot lately. Seeing all those people who come in boats from over the sea and no one wants them, they dont find shelter. Thinking… why am i safe? Because i’m luckely born in Europe? Why do we think in my country/your country?
    What is a country…a piece of land with borders around it? Isn’t this earth for all of us?

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  10. grace Avatar

    I love you, Martine Bos who looks from her window so far over a
    Sea and sees me….
    there are no borders….like we have imagined as lines on some map
    to Divide. They are fake. And i think the time is coming when it all will be called into question. Who was it that sang the song…
    Must be the Season of the Witch?….Mo will know. Donovan?
    i think we are moving toward Collapse. And this is as it should be
    so the Wild can arise again. What that might look like, i have no clue, but i cannot deny that it would be better than what we have created. I read about quotas, how the US of A is taking so few of the People on the Move, and i watch petitions rise on the screen to demand that this country take more, but i think….WHY would they want to come here? More and more we are a violent ignorant
    country. Everyday people of all kinds shoot themselves and eachother with guns. Even families, murder suicide. More and
    more, in my lifetime, i see hatred of the Other growing. The
    upcoming presidental election shit on the news saddens me, embarasses me, humiliates me as a human being and it is reported constantly as if it is significant to Something….
    Land has no borders. and yes. Earth is simply for Life. Any
    Life, even our own, if we choose to Give to the Well Being of the Whole.
    oh, Martine….i love you a LOT.

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  11. grace Avatar

    yeah. it’s Donovan. wow. that was a long time ago.

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  12. grace Avatar

    i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the progression of it all…slow, Considering
    everything, slow
    THANK YOU for your long wind….THANK YOU!

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  13. grace Avatar

    she is never really “distressed”, she is sometimes too Happy.
    and when i finally understood that, really, there is no
    issue any more.
    but for her…the crate now is the Familiar. I think the next
    will be to get something of a dog bed that is hers. I looked
    at dog beds on amazon and it’s insane. Dear Beloved Dog Trainer
    Jan said just get a bath mat. I laughed.
    so…yes. We Shelter. Me, Her, we are Us.

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  14. grace Avatar

    it’s 9/11 everyday in some places.
    and like you. This Place. Small. Plain. but Safe and i can
    Claim it. Like a homesteader.

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  15. grace Avatar

    certain kinds of madness are magnetized by certain kinds of
    madness.
    Love IS
    the only answer.

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  16. Nanette Avatar

    I buy soft cuddly blankets at the thrift store for Mirrhi, big enough for the cats to share too, and I made her a big pillow from a cot…crib…size doona cover and filled it with the stuffing from a couple of old pillows and fabric leftovers….she’s happy.

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  17. Nanette Avatar

    sometimes…my long wind is helpful 🙂

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