Rooks, Dogs, and Dolphins: Who is in control here?

Most of us do feel that our pets are having a good life; we care for them in a responsible manner by feeding at regular times, leaving some water to drink, and taking the dog for a walk. (or, as these days is becoming more popular, letting the dog go for a run on the treadmill.) The latter might be a good solution for many with busy schedules, but what about the other aspects of going outdoors with your pet; is it fair to omit the outdoor air, the sounds and smells of nature, which are perceived in a whole different manner by your Dog, Cat or even pet birds.
The Chinese understood this a long time ago already and would take their pet cage bird to the village or city square, and hang the little cage in a tree. Before long, the whole tree would look like a Christmas tree, with cages hanging from almost every branch.
The BBC's series on China, shown and repeated, last year, showed this aspect of the Chinese culture in one particular area. The owners of the birds, mostly male, would take their birds out so the pets would be able to meet others of their own -avian- kind. And indeed, the chatting started even before the birds had found their spot on the tree.
At least these pet owners are well aware of the fact that a cage is restricting the life of the bird very much, but how aware are you, while you are adjusting the switch on the treadmill so your pet can have his daily run.

I remember that a few years ago, I was going home from the village, and when we were passing the Sparrow hedge" along the little road, I got hold of this delicious waft of some Wild Flowers. I was so much intrigued that I went back along the road, unable to locate this lovely scented flower or plant. I stayed back there for some time.
I might not be a dog, but I can imagine that a dog would be just as intrigued.

Smells and sounds are part of Nature, and sometimes it is hard to hear these natural sounds above the many mobile telephone tones or radios.

I think my best "Pet" was a wild Rook, which used to come and visit me, through the open window of my bedroom. It was the wild aspect which made me like him/her. The fact that he/she could come and go as it liked and it wuold play with the teaspoons standing in a a cup with the coffee maker. The Bird wouldn't come in whenever friends were around, neither wuold he/she show when we were sitting outside at the back of the house.
It tried pecking at one of my cacti flowers once, and since then he wuold stay away from them. I never named it, because even as a 16 year old, I realised that I wuold claim it somehow as soon as I would place that label around his neck.

So then why did I give the young Jackdaw a name, after the fledgling had started coming here for some time? Is that not claiming the poor soul?
To be honest, I never understood those people, at the different fora/forums, who do name the birds coming to their garden. So am I turning into one of them also? Or was it pure laziness and that instead of writing about he/she his/her, etc. I used the first logical word which came into my head; Junior.

A woman at Rehabcare told me last time that she too "had a Rook as pet", while it stayed just as wild, like the one which I saw as a kid.

Luckily, we were both very aware that of course we never had these birds, but that they simply chose to visit us because they are very inquisitive.
I already had a window feeder , a very small, say 15x15cm and a little red roof on top. I had been into birds since I was a youngster and perhaps this is what drew the rook to my window in the first place, even though, Els-my mum, and I had left the little birdtable on the window of the smaller bedroom, which had been mine until my sister chose to run away from house when she was 17 and I was 14. I would do my homework in my old room, while watching the birds as they came to feed. From my bedroom I would still watch them fly to and fro the window next door, and perhaps the Rook came here because it was quieter than the other window. Yet the Rook was still attracted by the availability of food.He/she lived in the forest behind and around our house, which was my favourite place to go whenever something bothered me, or whenever I wanted to be alone.

When did we start to think that we had the right to control these animals which we took into our houses and from then on decided what the pet was allowed to do, ruin, and what it should eat and drink. Did it start with Huskies, which were vital to the lives of humans in the snow and ice of Alaska, or did humans setttle there as a last resort, after having colonised most of the planet already? It doesn't really matter where or how it started, it is what we do with this control which matters.

And we do not stop there, with our pets. No, we do like to think that this control we have extends to areas way beyond our own house.
We like to go swimming with Dolphins, which seems to be very good for your spiritual being and very good for children. But what about the Dolphins themselves? What do they get out of it? It is not very natural, is it?

Dony, or Georges a bottlenose Dolphin, with a habit of crossing open waters like the English Channel, North Sea, or country borders on the European continent, is also one of those friendly Dolphins" yet whose is he?
I know, this sounds like a strange question because we are talking about a wild animal.
A wild animals which made people flock to the bay where he was spotted in 2001. The problem which arose when it became apparent that these visitors spent money in the town, and so two villages wanted to claim that Dony was the Dolphin in their area of the bay.
Irish Dolphins Website
Swimming with Dolphins in the Azores
The Queen and King Rook


One of the Rooks which flock above the house and garden daily and which come and feed here, as ell as in the school yard.


The young Jackdaw, born last summer in the chimney of the school, next door. Although he is just one of four Jackdaw juveniles, that summer, it is his character which stood out from the start and he would (and still does) feed mostly on his own.






Chaffinch female in the garden,

One of my Blue Tits: