Bow's Friends

Most of us tend to have friends who are people we happen to have met along life's path and who keep in touch with us. Bow has many friends, too, that he has met over the years and with whom he has established relationships.

This year, for instance, Bow has two women friends that he looks forward to seeing once a week, each of them on a different day, who deliver food to us. He knows when each of them is expected, and he waits, and when they come, he has a somewhat different, but similar routine of greeting each of them and interacting. In the case of the one lady, he always hides at first, then shyly comes out to greet her. In the case of the other, he likes to do warm ups before jumping a great distance toward the front door of the pen. Each of these friends is very patient with Bow and allows him to take his time to warm up to them anew, which is one of the reasons he likes them. They accept him for who he is. They don't expect him to conform to any preconceived notion as to what is a socially appropriate way of greeting people.

This year, one of the ladies gave him a picture of herself and her family before Christmas break. The other brought us a platter of Christmas cookies. Bow was actually more interested in interacting with her in the usual way, rather than looking at the cookies, when  she came over yesterday. But he did have one of the cookies she brought for dessert last night at dinner.

It gets really dark very early in the evening at this time of year, and despite all the lights we have on in the pens, the video and pictures of Bow's Christmas tree cookie are kind of dim.

It is nice to have friends. Bow appreciates his friends and looks forward to their visits. No matter how isolated we may seem to be, there are always opportunities to meet new people and make friends.