Many of us who have spent decades in the wide open spaces of America have seen our share of talking animals. We’re not talking Dr. Doolittle here; Rather, we have been listening to the sounds of nature and its many treasured inhabitants. Yes, they do speak if only we will listen! We need to learn how to respond.

My own odyssey with talking animals began over 65 years ago on the open pasture land of the Upper Owens River in Northern California. While fishing for fat Brown Trout at age four and five, I often heard the nearby vocalizations of the many cows grazing there in the flooded pastures of spring. As I would pass, they would speak to me and so I often answered with variously pitched moos of my own. As the years rolled on, I became quite accomplished at bull shitting with my bovine friends. It is…