Tall Ears and Short Tales: Observations from the Barn - Hardcover

Chapman, Carol M

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0595749232 ISBN 13: 9780595749232

Publisher: iUniverse, 2003

Synopsis

When Carol Chapman sold her home in Connecticut, she soon found herself on one of those roads less traveled...and that has made all the difference. Arriving in Texas, she bought a ranch and created The Last Refuge, a sanctuary for unwanted dogs, cats, goats, and, most of all, for horses, mules, and donkeys that were destined for the slaughterhouse.

Meet Chipper, a chocolate Lab who not only participates in nursing horses back to health, but has also raised cats, lambs, and baby chicks. Learn how goats secretly yearn for the mountains of their ancestors and happily leap onto the hood of a car to illustrate that point. Follow Chapman around for a day and discover that it's hard to get out of shape when caring for horses--if lugging what has to go in one end (massive buckets of water, sixty-pound bales of hay, and fifty-pound bags of grain) doesn't keep a waistline trim, shoveling up piles of what comes out the other end will.

Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a hay bale, and enjoy Chapman's unconventional collection of earthy, hilarious, but always heart-warming and timeless reminiscences.

About this title

About the Author

Born into a widely traveled military family, Carol M. Chapman grew up toting pets from country to country. As an adult she adopted cast-off animals, and now lives in Texas, guardian to fifteen special-needs elderly equine once bound for slaughter.

From the Inside Flap

With humor and a deep sense of wonder, the stories in this book introduce the depths of interaction between an eclectic cast of animals and the woman who cares so deeply about them.

Tall Ears and Short Tales invites the reader to pull up a bale of hay, grab a cookie, pour a cup of coffee, sit and relax to stories framed as barn chats. In her stories, Chapman focuses on the bond between humans and animals, gently stressing that animals are not objects over which humans have dominion, but are kindred souls on a mutual passage through our life experiences. She invites readers to watch donkeys playing hide and seek, dogs stealing carrots, and an elderly horse caring for a blind horse. Chapman vividly enables us to feel the emotions that animals share with us and to recognize the beauty within all animals that can change our own lives.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Horse Ears, Tails, and Everything in Between

Now, just hold your horses! (I ve always wanted to say that to someone mainly, because I truly know what it takes to hold a horse that wants to go.) If you bought this book thinking it was full of cute, gentle tales about wonderful, ribbon-winning horses, you d better take it back. My horses, although very loving, loyal, and gentle creatures are not mane- and tail-flowing dream creations. They are closer to being the discards of today s throwaway society, tattered and tossed by the storms of life. I named my place The Last Refuge for two reasons: one public, one private. The public one is that this sanctuary provides a safe place for elderly and special-needs equines to dream of days of glory in shade-dappled pastures next to a deep, cool pond. They come here thin, downtrodden, dispirited, and quiet. In the space of a moment, they are transformed into individual personalities with quirks, humor, pathos, and a decisive set of likes and dislikes. (There! That sounds so much better than saying, "They have whims and whimsies.")

Ever since I was a young child, horses have marched through my dreams. First, as pretend horses, then as stable rentals, a leased horse, and finally, I met and fell in love with a swaybacked, elderly carriage horse that I paid $25 for when I was a young teenager. To me, he embodied the essence of Horse. His stumbling steps were transformed in my vision to glides of grace and elegance. Rather than perceiving his belly-dragging shamble, I saw poetry. His elderly sunken eyes spoke love and faith to me as I sat mute and listened to the music of his existence. He followed after me, gladly entering into my world of pretend and hope. When he passed on, he left a legacy deeply embedded in my soul. I had met Horse and I was his forever. That is the source of many of the stories in this book, the wonderment of Horse.

What? I didn t share the private reason for the name of the sanctuary with you? Okay, let me see if I can explain it and still keep half my audience. When I was a child, at one of the many schools I attended, while horse dreams drifted through my consciousness, we had to commit to memory a quote each week. We were given latitude on what to memorize, but if we did not have a quote ready for Monday morning, we would get a zero for that day. I admit to being scatterbrained at the time (and yes, sometimes that trait still lingers), and I got sidetracked easily. One Monday morning, I had no memorized quote ready and I was called on to recite. I stood and declaimed, "The last refuge in an uncaring world is a sense of humor." After ascribing it to the thirteenth-century philosopher and mathematician Roger Bacon, I sat down, bowed my head, and waited for retribution from the heavens above. My teacher complimented me on my quote and went on to the next student. I bore the internal shame of my deception until the break, and then I crawled up to the teacher s desk and confessed my turpitude. She laughed and told me that if Roger Bacon hadn t said it, he should have. I got a zero for the homework memorization and 100 % for the original creation. It has turned into one of my favorite quotes, and I m sure Roger Bacon would appreciate it if he could hear me, to this day, crediting him with helping create the name of my sanctuary.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0595749232
• ISBN 13: 9780595749232
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 140