Island Animal Watch: Livestock

I am really quite fond of animals. I realize that sometimes this makes me look silly. For instance, I can’t help but to invent animal dialog with all manner of stupid voices that usually border on the infantile. I am completely guilty of projecting human qualities onto my pets and other animals. Furry and/or four-legged creatures of nearly every variety bring me joy. And the creatures of St. Thomas have not disappointed.

Of course, in the Midwest, animals were all over the place. The part of Iowa in which I spent my formative years was agriculture central; cows and pigs in fields, grazing their days away, were a staple of the local landscape. It was a bit rarer to see sheep, though they definitely existed. On the occasion that I did pass a field of sheep, it gave me the pleasant sensation of being on holiday in Europe.

When I was a tot, we lived in the country for awhile. Mom and I drove by a pasture of cows daily, and it became ritual for us to moo to them when we passed. This was our way of greeting our bovine neighbors in a way we imagined they could understand. Imagine being the operative word here.

And then, of course, there were squirrels and chipmunks and bunny rabbits scampering through town as well as the usual domestic animals owned by family and friends.

The difference between the American Midwest and the American Caribbean in terms of living with animals is that, like all inhabitants of this island, we seem to live a lot closer to animals here than stateside. There is less space and fewer fences in St. Thomas between the general public and animals, both domestic and wild. And since there is such little room, livestock that used to seem far away and removed in the Midwest, seem extraordinarily up close and personal in St. Thomas.

For example it’s not at all uncommon to see a ram galloping in someone’s front yard or a cow tied up on the side of the road. And when I say on the side of the road, I mean, like right off of the road. A few months ago, I saw a loose cow clomping down Crown Mountain Road like it was her own personal walking trail.

She looks like a wild, smart, and sassy cow to me.

Must be the island-rearing.