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EGSM 6: Small friends (Pets)

In today’s Enthusigasm episode, Helen, Lydia, Sue, and Tessa talk about the joy of pets and what it means to share your life with an animal you love and who loves you.

Please note: this episode does include conversations about and references to pets dying.

Patreon bonus! Pictures of today's pets: https://bit.ly/30NWLVy 

Transcript:

PDF: https://bit.ly/3FSuWvl

Word: https://bit.ly/3BWSfBW

Lydia’s chicken stream: https://www.twitch.tv/urbanchooks

Content warnings:

Thank you to all our Patrons for your continued support

Directed and hosted by Helen Gould

Featuring Helen Gould, Lydia Nicholas, Sue Sims and Tessa Vroom

Edited by Tessa Vroom and Cathy Rinella

Produced by Lowri Ann Davies

Executive Producer: Alexander J. Newall and April Sumner

Music by Samuel D.F. Jones

Art by Anika Khan

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Enthusigasm is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence.

EGSM 6: Small friends (Pets)

Comments

My cat Toulouse was adopted at about 1yr old but had severe psychological issues. It's suspected he was taken from his mum too soon, which lead to communication and boundary issues. He was supposed to be a friend for our other cat but his issues made him hyper aggressive and dangerous to other cats (and dangerous in general) he was unrehomeable, so it was move out of home and see if I could train him or have him put down (he was really dangerous). I decided I picked him he was my responsibility. So I moved out and we've been doing behavioral training ever since (I'm very lucky and have family and friends who are veterinary behaviourists who helped me learn what to do). 6 years later he's doing so well! He still has episodes where he lashes out but we've worked in communication and boundaries and he's so much better, as long as others respect him he respects them - he's a great litmus test for new people, if you don't respect my cat's boundaries, you're probably not going to respect mine. He's stopped hunting people, and gives a warning that he wants pats to stop. He loves cuddles and play time with mum (me) and has even made friends with my friends and neighbours. He's my best friend and always checks on/curls up next to me when I'm sick or overwhelmed. He's always by my side and full of trust, I'm so glad I had the capacity to give him a chance, because I cannot imagine my life without this little guy, even if he's still a little bitey sometimes.

Julia Robins

That was great! My family adopts senior pets only so the kids grew up with death which was great! They understood the line between compassionate easing of pain and not being able to alleviate suffering. And then... one day we went to get a 12 year old spaniel from the pound (what jerk surrenders a senior animal???) but she was already gone. Ya can't leave empty handed though, right? Now we've got a 4 year energy filled monster boy who loooooooooooves me to bits and adores the rest of the family, and we're just like...omigosh... he's going to take at least another 12 years to die- this is a new adventure for us! (meanwhile my 16 year old spaniel is like - hello? what the heck did you bring home??!)

Claire Voss

This was instant happiness to listen to, love to all these pets!! Thanks for sharing this, it made my whole day!

rowanoak

The chicken noises are amazing and different than my mental memory of chicken noises which are probably based on a sound board. I love it!

Rebecca Dupont

They did play The Dark Room this year!

sAZAndorable

Can't wait for the next actual play where the cast is just Lydia's four chickens.

Dr Lou

the Enthusigasm drops are absolutely the highlight of my week right now. I'm not surprised that the microcosm of small friends was periodically so profound about formative ways of figuring out big abstract macrocosms like 'the world' and 'nature' and 'where do I fit'. Non-human friends tend to have their priorities in order in ways that clarify ours, you know? tl;dr this was a delight and I should probably check out Lydia's twitch stream, because chickens and existential philosophy are apparently two flavors that go great together. I also really really liked how this one felt like not just bi-generational but multigenerational with that just being one of many axes of diverse experience being brought to bear. These are really great and bear up well to multiple listens, and I can already tell this particular one is one I'll return to more than once. Thank you for sharing the gift of your conversations. <3

JJ Hunter


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