July. 22, 2019--Cow Cuddling

I knew the culture was shifting when I encountered one of my New York City neighbors, a well turned out middle-aged woman, pushing a baby carriage down Broadway.

What was unusual was that she has neither a baby of her own nor a grandchild. She lives alone with a Bichon Frise. A Bichon who was under a blanket in the full-size carriage. 

"Is something wrong with her?" I asked when she stopped to talk.

"No. I'm just taking Lydia for a walk. She prefers the carriage to the sidewalk and so do I."

We chatted a bit more and then she resumed her stroll, all the while engaged in a conversation with Lydia.

When I told Rona about this she said she thought Lydia was a service dog.

"But what does that have to do with pushing her around in a baby carriage?"

"I suppose nothing." Rona was not that interested in pursuing the subject. Manhattan is full of eccentrics.

But not too many days later we were out for breakfast in a neighborhood restaurant and were stunned to see at a table in the rear a man alone with what looked like a small horse.

Now that was beyond eccentric and captured even Rona's curiosity.

"What's going on?" she asked, truly puzzled but also intrigued. "Can he possibly be a service animal?"

"Inconceivable," I said. "Dogs I get, but horses?"

When we got home I did some research and discovered that sure enough the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) does in fact, in addition to dogs, allow that "miniature horses" can be considered service animals. And, as such, can be taken most everywhere. Clearly including restaurants in as unrural a place as one can imagine--New York City.

(Look it up if you're skeptical.) 

More recently, there was an article in the New York Times about cuddling cows as a form of "animal-based therapy."

At a bed-and-breakfast on a farm in upstate New York the owners supply cows for guests to cuddle. For $75 an hour-long session one can have access to two cows that are apparently friendly to humans and without prompting will lie down to allow themselves to be embraced by those seeking communion and nurturing of a sort with the natural world.

"It's not a petting zoo," say the farm's owners, it's more an opportunity for stressed out folks to participate in living a "natural life."

They do advise that wearing the right kind of clothing is smart since cows "might slobber on you." And avoiding wearing open-toed shoes is a good idea since cows are prone to "drop things."

I'm not sure if this is an issue with other animals that are known to provide. Alligators, for example.

You can look that up too.