WEBVTT

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And in Conant Gardens,
later that same day,

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my uncle had minks in
his backyard, 500 minks.

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I don't know if you've ever
seen how minks are raised,

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but they're raised in
domesticity, domestic

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situations, but they're
never become tame.

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They're wild animals.

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And if you think a
mink coat is beautiful,

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you should see a living
mink, a beautiful animal.

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And so I was very
interested in the minks

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and tried to make
friends with them--

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lots.

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I'd go out where the cages
were and talk to them,

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but they didn't make friends.

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They don't want to be friends.

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"The Minks."

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"In the backyard of
our house on Norwood,

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there were 500 steel
cages lined up,

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each with a wooden box
roofed with tar paper.

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Inside, two stories
with straw for a bed.

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Sometimes the minks would
pace back and forth, quite

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wildly looking for a way out.

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Or else, they'd hide
in their wooden houses,

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even when we put the offering of
raw horse meat on their trays,

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as if they knew
they were beautiful

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and wanted to deprive us.

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In spring, the placid kits
drank with glazed eyes.

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Sometimes the mothers would
go mad and snap their necks.

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My uncle would lift
the roof like a god who

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might lift our roof,
look down on us,

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and take us out to safety.

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Sometimes one would escape.

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He would go down on
his hands and knees,

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aiming a flashlight
like a bullet of light,

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hoping to catch the
orange gold of its eye.

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He wore huge boots, gloves
so thick their little teeth

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couldn't bite through.

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They're wild, he'd
say, never trust them.

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Each afternoon when I put
the scoop of raw meat,

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rich with eggs and
vitamins, on their trays,

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I'd call to each a greeting.

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Their small thin faces would
follow as if slightly curious.

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In fall, they went out in
a van, returning sorted,

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matched, their
skins hanging down

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on huge metal hangers
pinned by their mouths."

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My uncle would take them
out when company came

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and drape them over his arm.

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The sweetest cargo.

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He'd blow down the pelts
softly, and the hairs

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would part for his breath and
show the shining under-life

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which, like the
shining of the soul,

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gives us each
character and beauty."

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