As part of my New Year’s resolutions I decided to make an effort to find out what kinds of topics interest Pets Blog readers. So I posted a thread in the forum asking what you’d like to see from Pets in ‘08 and to my delight I got a few responses.
Keeping Peace in Multiple Pet Households
On of the issues people expressed interest in learning more about and understanding better was maintaining harmony when more than one pet –-same species or not– shares a house.
In one of her replies, Mcmama remarked: “Having a peaceable kingdom is something that a lot of pet owners have an interest in. These animals don’t connect in the wild, but they do in our homes.”
“Don’t connect in the wild” is what caught my attention. It reminded me of something I’d seen while in Washington D.C.
The Wolf and Deer Alone in a White Room
Among the many museums Wayne and I visited while in D.C. a couple months back was the Hirshhorn Museum. On the very bottom floor there was this one media exhibit.
We didn’t know what it was all about when we first walked in. All we knew was the room was dark, there was a big screen with a movie playing, and there were seats. (Something our very tired feet were craving.)
So we sat down and watched as the camera alternated between a wolf and a deer. Sometimes it focused on just the one, sometimes it captured them both in the same frame. They were in a white, empty room and it wasn’t entirely clear if they’d been filmed separately or edited together or if there was some kind of invisible barrier between them.
The deer kept it’s eye on the wolf, but it wasn’t freaking out. It was very calm the whole time. The wolf just sniffed around, sometimes glanced in the deer’s direction but really paid it no mind.
Which caused a lot of anxiety and anticipation on the viewer’s part. What was going to happen? There wasn’t any dramatic music to raise the expectation. In fact, there was no music. Just the two minute or so film running continuously of the wolf and the deer.
Out of Their Normal Circumstances
I read the description of the piece as we exited. Turns out, what I was experiencing as I watched the film (the questioning and the anticipation) is exactly the effect the artist was striving for.
The deer and wolf were both real. There were no barriers in the room. There was no interference in their interaction. The artist put them in the room together and filmed the consequences. Which was that they didn’t bother each other.
The artist theorized that the wolf and deer, sworn enemies, could coexist so harmoniously because they’d been removed from the normal stimulus that provoked their predator and prey instincts. But we humans expected it because that’s what happens right? The one’s supposed to want to eat the other.
But if there was no need or motivation to act out a typical role, why would they? They’d simply coexist.
Perhaps this is the same with our animals, too. Outside of our homes they might clash, but within our homes they’ve found an animal Eden of sorts. A place where they become as much family to each other as they do to us.
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