I feel like I’m constantly wrestling to disentangle the emotions I project onto the animals around me from their firsthand experiences of the world.

sunny morning pasture 20171026-1988

So I struggle not to read contentedness in this scene, or even happy relief at the end of the rain.  Do the ewes have an extra spring in their step at the break of 3 days of miserable weather, or do they experience each moment in isolation?  Sheep are clearly able to learn, so they must have some manner of comparing a previous experience to a new situation, but I doubt I’ll ever know whether they perceive the fifth beautiful day in a row any differently than the first.