Animal Handling

To my regular readers it will come as no surprise that when I title a post Animal Handling it has something to do with Jack.  He is half dog after all and a Pug at that.  When we were at the zoo the other day there was a rooster that Jack had his eye on.  I guess technically that would have to be one of his eyes as the other was permanently affixed to the train.  Every time I turned around Jack was sneaking off to give chase to the rooster.  He even had his rooster call down pat.  When it comes to dogs he is the dog whisperer and seems to connect with most of them.  There are only a few dogs that didn't really get a long with Jack.  Usually they are face to face and then the dogs end up licking the flesh of Jack's face.  It really is an amazing thing.  I have also watched Jack grab the hens at the Jenkins house by the foot and carry them around.  One day one of their hens crawled under their deck.  Jack somehow managed to slide underneath, catch the hen and then crawl back out.  I think he has no fear of animals and that can be a little scary.

Last night I was the go to guy for filling up bike tires.  I had borrowed a pump from the Jenkins and had a line for air.  I heard a disturbance across the street in the form of a cat growl.  I looked up and there was Jack holding this cat.  The cat was not happy and did some clawing.  I yelled over to Jack to let it go.  He did and then he walked off.  He refused to come and see me and then snuck into the house.  I went in to assess the damage.  He was a bit scratched up and also got a little bite in the arm.  No crying, no freaking out, he just stood there with this cat.  I asked what he was doing and he said he was just trying to grab its collar.  What was this cats problem anyway?  

Jack has this fascination with animals and his lack of fear makes me a bit nervous that he will use zero caution around potentially dangerous animals.  I can just see him walking right up to a bear or grabbing a rattle snake without much thought.  I love that he loves animals and finds so much joy in them and I don't want to break that spirit but need to figure out how to help him recognize certain dangers and the need to exercise caution.  We'll do our best to keep the wild animal handling to a minimum though I think I may have the next crocodile hunter on my hands.