Course Six: Spectrum, Part 2 255
millennia they were
our best friends, as
well as our only
means of transpor-
tation. Horses
have a large brain
and are very social
and intelligent be-
ings. They are capable of profound depths of love
and loyalty (stories like The Black Stallion and My
Friend Flicka are drawn from real-life experiences).
Horses have a great sense of humor, and older horses
can be patient teachers and companions for children
and teenagers. If you live in the country or near a stable,
then you may decide to make the effort to get a horse.
They require the biggest commitment and hardest work
of all animals, even if you board your horse at a stable.
But the magickal union of a horse and rider moving
effortlessly together as one heart and mind is one of
the greatest familiar experiences you can ever have.
If you are seriously interested in pursuing this
path, the best books in the world to begin with are
written by the real-life “horse whisperer,” Monty Rob-
erts.Possums
I think possums make the
best pets of all wild animals.
Only one kind lives in North
America—the original model that
has remained unchanged since the
days of the dinosaurs. However, many other
kinds of possums live in South America, Australia, and
New Zealand. I can only talk about the North American
possum, as it’s the only one I have experience with.
These are in no way an endangered species, and they
are not protected by law, so if you should come across
a baby possum, you might want to give it a good home.
Because the mother carries the babies around in her
pouch or on her back, by the time you find one apart
from its mama, it’s old enough to be on its own. Baby
possums are adorable little white fuzzballs with whiffly
pink noses and ears like flower petals.
Get a little pouch to hang around your neck, or
carry the baby possum around in your pocket. Pos-
sums don’t eat very much, and they sleep most of the
time. They eat almost anything (cat food is a good
staple), but each one has its favorites. They are easily
litter-box trained and very little trouble. We have had
several over the years and have given them silly names
(Pogo, Participle, Raspberry, and Able). They have
slept with us under the covers, clung to my back when
I rode around on my bicycle, and been great pets. A
possum is sort of like a retarded cat—not too bright,
but very sweet. Having a possum is one step above
having a stuffed animal! However, they have too short
a short life span to be a good long-term familiar.Bats and Owls:
“The Children
of the Night”
Owls and bats teach us
to not be afraid of the dark.
When I was a boy, I had a little brown bat and a screech
owl living in my bedroom. I found them both in an old
barn I was exploring. They were wonderful and fun
pets—very friendly and easy to care for (insect-eat-
ing bats thrive on liver sausage with a little boiled egg
blended together with a few bugs, and owls eat whole
mice or rats—one or two a day). My mother still tells
of how her bridge club was thrown into chaos one day
when someone left my bedroom door open and Boris,
my “flittermouse,” came flying out into the living room!
Bats, however, are not suitable as familiars. Just en-
courage them to live around your house and eat flying
insects. Moreover, these days some bats carry rabies,
so they should be left alone. (But if I lived in Australia,
I would definitely want to have a fruit bat!)
Owls have long been associated with
wisdom and Wizards. Athena, Greek God-
dess of Wisdom, has an owl named
Bubo. Harry Potter, of course, has his
beautiful snowy owl, Hedwig. Owls
are also my very favorite birds. I have
had several over my life—including a
charming great horned owl with a bro-
ken wing who lived with Morning
Glory and me for eight years when we
worked with Critter Care. I named him Archimedes,
after Merlyn’s owl. Archimedes was a polite, sensible,
dignified bird with a keen sense of humor. He and
Octobriana used to play tricks on each other, and he
would always pull his stunts with a satisfied “Gotcha!”
chuckle. He was an excellent familiar for me, but keep-
ing him also entailed having to raise rats to feed him
one every night. I do not recommend this to you!
In the U.S., owls are now protected birds, and
you can’t keep them as pets anymore. However, if you
volunteer with a local Wildlife Rescue center, you might
get to help heal an injured owl and have the thrill of
setting it free back into the wild. Maybe it will fly back
to you in your dreams.Birds
Birds will bond very closely
with a person—especially if you
“imprint” them as hatchlings—
and many make excellent familiars.
Cockatiels and lorikeets are really smart and can learn
to speak human words. And they can live a very long
time! I do not recommend, however, getting a parrot or
macaw, as these are intensely social birds, and they
require constant physical interaction and verbal stimu-
lation to maintain their marginal sanity. Crows and
ravens can also be taught to speak a few words, and- Spectrum 2.p65 255 1/15/2004, 9:31 AM