Careers with Animals
- 1. Careers in Dog Behavior
- 2. Resources in Animal Related Careers
- 3. What is a Veterinary Behaviorist?
- 4. What is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist?
- 5. On Board with the Beagle Brigade
- 6. Humane Law Enforcement
- 7. Careers with Animals - Job Descriptions
- 8. So You Want to Work with Animals? A Guide for Youth Who Love Animals
- 9. Urban Life to Agricultural Farmers
Urban Life to Agricultural Farmers
Nancy Marano
Dream Work
An artist and a stockbroker turn their love for animals into a way of life.
Dreamboat and Wags are the official greeters at Von Bock Farm, an eight-acre homestead in Los Silvestres, a small agricultural village in northern New Mexico. With happy barks and wagging tails, Dreamboat, a Belgian sheepdog adopted from a Santa Fe shelter, and Wags, a terrier mix who wandered onto the farm and stayed, usher visitors into a world that has animals at its center.
Listening to Richard and Lori Faye Bock talk about their deep love for animals and the land, its easy to get caught up in their enthusiasm for this slower-paced, more peaceful way of life. Yet this couple wasnt born and raised in the boonies. A successful urban couple until a dozen years ago, its easy to wonder what possessed them to leave Corona del Mar, California, for this tiny, rural outpost on the Chama River.
We enjoy having the option of raising part of our food, but we didnt move to the country for economic reasons. Really, it was for peace of mind and a change of lifestyle, says Richard Bock.
In California, Bock worked as a stockbroker, a profession he still pursues even though his time is split between following the market by computer and shepherding his flock of sheep. Lori Faye Bock taught elementary school in the Watts section of Los Angeles while advancing her career as a ceramic artist. Since moving to the country, Bock has given up being a ceramist. Shes discovered that her greatest joy comes from painting pictures of animals. I believe farm life has allowed Lori Faye to discover and expand upon the whimsical nature of the animals she uses in her paintings, says her husband.
The Bocks moved to Santa Fe in April 1989 but settled there only briefly. By October 1990, they were living on the 8.6 acres theyd purchased in Los Silvestres. Their farm, just up the road from Georgia OKeeffes home in Abiquiu, is part of an original Spanish land grant. It includes a 250-year-old adobe hacienda, an apple orchard, sheep pens and a bosque, or forested area, near the river. The Bocks are doing most of the needed remodeling themselves. The finished rooms definitely reveal the artists touch. Not only do Lori Fayes paintings cover the walls, but the adobe walls themselves are brightly painted in warm shades that reflect the people who live within.
Its In the Eyes
We sit beneath a canopy by the Rio Chama, sharing homemade apple honey. Lori Faye Bock, a small woman with short, blond hair, talks about the joys of living with animals and what she tries to convey through her paintings. At the moment, 55 sheep, six dogs, five cats and assorted geese and ducks live on the Von Bock farm, providing plenty of models for her creations. Lori Faye has lived with companion cats since she was a child. Richard is responsible for bringing home the dogs and sheep.
Im a cat person. I eat, drink and sleep cats. They are just the closest things to my heart, the artist says. But I have a lot of fun with the dogs, too. They are very endearing. And the sheep are wonderful. I often use them in my work.
The cat contingent includes Fanny, a 14-year-old outdoor cat who got his name by surviving an encounter with the fan belt of a truck. Merriali, a 15-year-old Abyssinian; Abi, a 12-year-old tabby; Tresi, a 10-year-old lilac point Siamese and H.G. Tux, a gray and white kitten, live indoors.
Bock exudes warmth, compassion and humor, the same qualities so evident in her work. Anyone who has lived with a cat or a dog will recognize the expressions she captures in paint. The eyes of the creatures she paints convey the range of emotions she observes in them, so similar to those of humans: confusion, haughtiness, love and even sarcasm. Her animals have attitude, as one patron put it.
When I paint cats and dogs, their eyes say, Take me home. Love me. The sheeps eyes are more sarcastic. I dont know why that happens, she says. The titles that Bock chooses for her paintings reveal her wry sense of humor. A sheep standing in the kitchen is titled, In the Kitchen but Not In the Oven. A wistful cat and dog bear the legend, They Didnt Even Invite Us To The Party, as they watch the festivities from another room. I spend a lot of time observing the animals, says Bock. That goes into my paintings.
Bock hopes her work helps people understand that animals are to be loved and cared for. She believes that if you bring a companion animal into your home, that animal is your responsibility for as long as it lives. I volunteered in the cat room at the Espaola Animal Shelter for a short time, but I couldnt handle the euthanasia, she says. I decided I needed to find another way to help.
Art for Animals
With this in mind, Bock contacted the American Humane Association (AHA) in 1999 and asked whether her work could benefit any of their programs.
I was impressed with the quality of her paintings, and the fact that she wanted to use her special talents to help promote animal welfare, recalls Joyce Briggs, formerly with AHA and now executive director of PETsMART Charities.
National Tag Day had just been created, and we needed a visual statement [to publicize it]. We liked her painting, I Will Protect You, and asked her to put a collar and tag on the cat and dog. This became the poster for Tag Day 2000.
National Tag Day was instituted to draw attention to the number of animals in shelters who are euthanized because they have no identification. These animals cant be returned to their owners because the shelters have no way to locate them.
Bock also contributed the artwork for Tag Day 2001. Before creating these posters, she had never painted dogs and cats together and had never put tags on the animals in her paintings. Now she always adds tags to remind people to be responsible.
Working with AHA has been a real eye-opener. I went to the annual convention in Minneapolis to sign posters, and while I was there I learned about The Link. I wasnt aware of the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence or that animals often are used as pawns in abusive relationships, Bock says. It made me want to use my work to help animal shelters raise peoples consciousness to this issue. I decided the best way for me to help as many animals as possible was to concentrate on no-kill shelters.
Bock recently donated, Its Just Not FairShe Always Gets Her Way to the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania (ARL) in Pittsburgh for its annual auction. The painting depicts a cat resting on a plush couch while the dog is relegated to the floor. The Bocks chose ARL because of the shelters goal to become a no-kill shelter by 2005.
While in Pittsburgh, Bock spoke with students in a middle school art class. Thered been quite a few animal abuse cases in Pittsburgh, including a cat who had been shot 21 times with metal pellets. I talked to the students about ways that they can follow their dreams of becoming artists, but we also talked about how nightmares are the opposite of dreams. I used the abused cat as an example. Then we discussed the importance of being responsible for your animal companion, the need to spay or neuter him or her and the need to end violence toward animals.
If Bock has a hidden agenda, its this: I hope people find the animals in my work so endearing that they want to adopt one of their own. If they already have one, I hope theyll give it some extra love and attention.
Love at First Bleat
As we walk through the sheep pens, Richard Bock talks about the life that he and his wife have chosen. Nothing about living this way has been planned. Its been an evolutionary process of discovery. Over the years, I spent a lot of time reading about the care of farm animals. I kept rereading one issue of Country Journal that was devoted to raising sheep. For a person like myself, with an urban background, sheep seemed more appealing than taking on the responsibility of cattle or horses, he says.
In researching the Los Silvestres area, Bock learned that it had been a sheep-herding region, so he acquired several Churros, a well-known southwestern breed prized for its long, white wool. Then he read about Jacob Sheepwhich trace their lineage back to biblical timesin a magazine on minor and rare sheep breeds. Bock decided to help keep the breed alive.
Jacob Sheep, which have only been imported into the United States since the 1950s, are small-statured sheep with black and white wool and four horns. Some people actually think they're goats when they see them, Bock says. Jacob wool is not in high demand because of its coloration; buyers prefer white wool that can be dyed.
Marissa was Bocks first Jacob ewe. Shes the queen, the matriarch, the one responsible for all the black and white going on in our flock, he says.
The flock now numbers 55. Each sheep has a name, although Bocks naming process is eclectic. Mutual funds, such as Van Kampen or Goldman Sachs, might be standing next to a favorite singer like Jimmy Beaumont, lead vocalist with the Skyliners. Theres even a Bill Clinton at Von Bock Farm.
Spring is my favorite season because its lambing time, says Lori Faye. To watch those little guys pop out and stand within 20 minutes is a miracle. Sometimes, however, even miracles go wrong. Richard has nurtured several lambs whose mothers rejected them or who were too weak to stand. These lambs were brought into the house for the extra attention they needed to survive.
On most farms, these lambs would be left to die, but not here, Richard says. Ive found that nurturing these lambs and tending the sheep teach you whats important. You can bond as deeply with a sheep as you can with a cat or dog.
Richard has been concentrating on improving the organic composition of the clay-like New Mexican soil. Ive found that sheep manure is the best way to achieve fertile ground. We put the sheeps wool around the base of our evergreen trees, tomato plants and raspberry bushes to help retain moisture in the soil. Nutrients in the lanolin do wonders for the soil and plants, he says. People look at me cross-eyed when I tell them that, and they think, This guy is really wacky. But it works.
The Bocks have begun to judiciously adopt out sheep to interested people. We believe its a way for other people in the countryside to learn the benefits and joys of living with animals, Richard says.
The Bocks are committed to this lifestyle and want to see it continue. To achieve that goal, they are hoping to create a farm preserve on their property to demonstrate sustainable farming practices and sheep care. They also plan to place conservation easements on their land to protect its agricultural integrity.
Lori Faye and Richard Bock have managed to turn their dream of living on a small farm surrounded by happy, healthy animals into reality. We consider ourselves so blessed to live this way. We never take it for granted, Lori Faye says.
Nancy Marano is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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For More Information on the artwork of Lori Faye Bock
on Jacob Sheep
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© 2002 ASPCA
ASPCA Animal Watch - Spring 2002
Courtesy of
ASPCA
424 East 92nd St.
New York, NY 10128-6804
(212) 876-7700
www.aspca.org
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