“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
—Anatole France
Since our granddaughter Lyla, had off from Jewish pre-school due to first night of Passover, she hung out with Cecille, myself and her uncle Jason.
She wanted to play in my home office which she refers to as Papa’s room (She tells everybody I have the best toys). She loves to play my Brazilian box drum I acquired during my travels. This time she played it while singing her ABCs (video).
Then she played with my medical bag instruments (Stethoscope, reflex hammer, and blood pressure cuff) and examined and pretended to treat all my hand carved animals I brought home from Kenya. She made me wear my grey surgical cap while she wore my green one backwards and me to tie the strings. She’s either going to be a veterinarian or musician. Next she wanted to see videos of “fire of all things.” She mentioned she heard about a cat that was saved by fireman. I assumed she heard something at her preschool. So I showed her clips of firemen saving cats from trees and apartments. You could see the joy in the firemen’s faces as they retrieved the pets and returned them to their owner. Lyla was moved by what she saw. She kept repeating, oh, "that’s so nice”
It’s a mitzvah (a good deed in Hebrew). Then, she followed my lead and kept saying. “It’s a mitzvah."
When Cecile came back from the grocery store we all went to brunch at Effie’s. Afterwards, we took a ride to Westmont Agricultural Farm in Campbell to see the animals. The first thing we saw was a black cow beinng washed and groomed by a young man. We were allowed to roam the farm to our hearts content. There is no charge for visitors. Some of the friendly farm hands and students were accommodating. One young woman offered to bring out a baby bunny for Lyla to see and pet, after we visited pigs, cows, lambs, and chickens. The earthy smell always brings me back to my visits to family friends in Italy who had a farm and raised chickens and cows and made fresh mozzarella from the cows milk.
The two-acre farm is located across the street from Westmont High School not too far from where we live. It seems out of place in a suburban area that values high technology. Many students from the high school who study agriculture grow greenhouse plants, raise animals for show as part of a program that keeps the area’s rural history alive. The farm is the last Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter in Silicon Valley that harkens back over a century ago when the valley was filled with orchards of apricots and plum trees.
