Even though the Film and Television reps spend their days reading scripts and visiting locations, they think of themselves as being in the animal business rather than in the movie business, much the way that barbers in the navy probably think of themselves as being in the hair business rather than in the boat business.
She clipped Biff into place on the machine, turned it on, gave me a skeptical parting look, and said, with an arch tone, “I’lI leave you two alone.” I settled into a chair and pulled out my notebook. Biff trotted along on the Jog-Master, panting lightly and mostly ignoring me. A few minutes passed. I closed my notebook and put it back in my bag, after making one note in it: Dogs don’t talk.
A few years ago, a lawyer named Natalie Reeves, who volunteers at a rabbit shelter and has lectured on rabbit law at the New York City Bar Association, was having trouble untangling the hair of her pet longhaired rabbit, Mopsy McGillicuddy. She found an Internet group for long-haired-rabbit owners. She posted about Mopsy’s hair troubles, and expected she would receive tips on conditioners and brushes. On the site, she noticed that a common response to similar problems was to kill the rabbit and start fresh with another.
Although we may think of the animal world as something separate from us, like a moon orbiting around the earth, it’s more of a weave, with some animals farther away from the cross-threads of the human world and others closer.