Apifera Farm - where art, story, animals & woman merge. Home to artist Katherine Dunn

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©Katherine Dunn.





Thursday, July 27, 2017

Opie the therapy goat: on the road again

Opie and I went into Wiscasset this morning to visit our new friends at an elder care home. The weather was iffy so we were invited inside to the living area which Opie seemed enamored by. The old house has very long windows, from floor to ceiling so Opie could see the cars going by on the city street outside. He seemed very transfixed by that for awhile.

We all noticed how calm and quiet he was today, sitting on laps and at one point almost dozing off. He was content to sit still and not wiggle. We pontificated what he did last night to make him so sleepy, but in my head, I wondered if he knew that we all needed some calm.

"We want him to be himself," said one resident.

Mary in the floral dress is the quietest resident and last visit she said not one peep, nor did she smile. Today, there were some faint smiles, and as we all conversed a bit about if anyone had lived on a farm or had animals in their past, she said,

"Cow."

Opie is proving to be a natural. They really like having the animals visit. There is a cat that comes once in awhile, and his picture is framed in the room. I might have to get an Opie photo over there. I'm trying to think of special things I can do to make our visits even better, but today I realized there is one thing that matters most-that we care to go visit. That is what they feel-we wanted to come visit, take time and just sit with them. I think Opie understood that–he could just be himself and rest with them, didn't have to jump around and do acrobatics, he just had to be present in his little pint sized goat body.