Latest / The Art of Aging / Episode 9 - The Birds and the Bees

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Episode 9 - The Birds and the Bees · The Art of Aging

0:06
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to season two of The Art of Aging, produced right here at Montgomery Place, where we celebrate life, honor legacy, and build a community where residents thrive at every stage of life.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Today's episode is entitled The Birds and the Bees.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: We are honored to welcome Dr.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: Alan Cosno, whose life and career have been shaped by a deep love for animals, nature, and care.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: From his work as a veterinarian to his passion for being a beekeeper and even a few stories involving dogs and cats, Dr.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Cosno's journey is a wonderful example of how a connection to nature can bring meaning, purpose, and joy throughout life.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: The Art of Aging is hosted by Mark Mollet, President and CEO Montgomery Place, and sponsored by Trinity Rehab, Unodyne, Life Care at Home, and Plant Moran.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: So, Dr.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: Cosnell, are you ready to talk about the birds and the bees to our art of aging audience today?
1:14
SPEAKER_02: Not so much birds, but I'll talk about bees somewhat.
1:17
SPEAKER_02: Very good, very good.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: Well, we want to start at the beginning.
1:20
SPEAKER_02: So can you share with us your earliest childhood memory?
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Oh well, yes.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: I was about two and a half and we were moving from one apartment to another.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: And I saw my bicycle be my tricycle being put in the truck, and I thought that was so cool.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: How about your first pet?
1:40
SPEAKER_01: First pet.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: My father would have had a dog, and my mother didn't want any part of it.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: But when I was seventeen and my younger brother was twelve, we spent about six months nagging my mother, and she said, All right, so we got a dog, and that was the first pet I had other than parakeets and stuff like that.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: So when did you first really realize your your love for animals?
2:03
SPEAKER_01: I I never said that I love animals.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: I greatly enjoy being with animals and working with them.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: I won't say I love them.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: I I love certain individual pets that I had, but I I didn't love I I was not an animal lover in general.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: So what led you towards the career path of being a veterinarian?
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay, everybody asks me that.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: And uh they're disappointed in the answer, but I was a junior in high school, and all the other guys knew what they were going to do and what they were gonna major in, and I had no idea.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: And I got the University of Illinois catalog, big thick thing, and every curriculum on there was was alphabetical, and I started an aeronautical engineering and I kept flipping through, and nothing appealed to me, and I got way at the end in the V, it said veterinary medicine.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: The thought had never occurred to me.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, yeah, I like animals and I like science, that's what I'll do.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: And that's good because I was almost at the very end with no further choice.
3:07
SPEAKER_02: So that career path seemed to work out for you, okay?
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh no, I'm I I would do it again.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it was not a lifelong uh ambition.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: Can you share some stories of just your career of being being a vet and maybe just uh some of the experiences, like what what was it like when you first started and how have things changed?
3:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, the profession has changed.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: I remember being a young and not even that young veterinarian, and thinking, how did the ones years ago ever accomplish anything?
3:42
SPEAKER_01: But now I know they're thinking about me because it keeps advancing.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's I I they're doing things now that I I would have died to be able to do.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh easy ways of administering medications, better ways to do things, better vaccines.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I was interning i in Philadelphia, we literally saw a new case of feet of canine distemper every day.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: And now there's really good veterinarians, but they've never seen a case.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: I would uh I would compare that to a modern pediatrician, never see a case of polio.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about your your pets.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: We had cats.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: We were living in apartments, my wife and I at first, and uh so we had two cats for a while and a cat here and there.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Um and I didn't have a dog.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: I had been in practice a few years.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: I I didn't have my own dog.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: And I got involved with some with a trainer and a group of his, and they had a whole different approach to dog training.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of tough love, but it was good.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh yeah, a veterinarian, I should know how to train a dog.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: So I had an employee who was raising Shetland sheepdogs, which are the toy collies, and I said, Uh, could I borrow one of your dogs for a few months?
5:06
SPEAKER_01: I want to train it.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: And I went to her house and there's a whole bunch of them rolling her running around.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, that one.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: Random.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: And I took her home and I trained her.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: And I it's a three-month course.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: So she had never lived in a ho real home before.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: So she lived at she was at the animal hospital all the time, except f before the night of the session.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And uh, well, at the end of three months, I had a real good trained dog.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: I was patting myself on the back, but it wasn't my dog.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: So I said, okay, here's your dog back.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: And then I started thinking, yeah, I could show off.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: I could be a real show off.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: So I made a deal with her.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: It was a a brood bitch, a female for breeding, and and we made a deal.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: She would get the first litter, and uh then I could keep her.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: So I did, and I kept her all her life.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: That was that that was important.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: I uh peep people would comment on my my really trained dog, and she was.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: And it was a kind of a tough m tough love method, but once they've the dog learned what there was to do, they would have wag their tail through everything.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: And is that your favorite breed of dog, or do you No, I never had a favorite breed of dog.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: And you mentioned you had birds too at one time?
6:26
SPEAKER_01: No.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I started uh I started in my own practice in 64.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: And uh none there was no specialty at all then.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: And I I I'd had some birds as a kid, parakeet, canary, and so okay, I'll see birds.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: And the other guys didn't want to see them, so they were sending me bird cases.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't very good at it, but then nobody else was either.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: Then a veterinarian started nearby, and boy, that guy really knew his birds.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: So that's I didn't see birds after that.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: No, go see him.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: He's he's really good with it.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: And the bees.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: The bees, okay.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Um I had moved into my home uh that I left to get here uh in 75.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: I had a client who was bringing me his German shepherd, and just chatting with him, he commented he had beehives.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: He lived in Evanston, commented that he had a be a beehive, and it was way up in Lincolnshire, which is well north of where we were, and he was driving all that way from Evanston, but then his wife got this great job on the south side of Chicago and they were going to move.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I don't know what to do with my bees.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: I thought, okay, bring them here.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: And so he did.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: He got me started, and uh that was in 1976, and I've had bees had bees all along.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: And did you make honey and oh yeah, well they made they made honey.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: They made honey.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh yes.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Um I I wondered, you know, they've got to have flowers, and they gotta have a lot of them, and they gotta have the right kind.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Here, pitulias won't do it.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: They gotta have the right kind of flowers.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of pessimistic.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: But no, they were making honey right from the start.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: They were finding nectar somehow very well.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: And then I got into it.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: Then I was running, you know, anywhere between four and six hives every year.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: And were you jarring the honey yourself?
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was doing it all.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: You got you have to extract it.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I got an extractor, and at first I had a hand-cranked extractor, and then I moved up to a good electric one.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: There's centrifuges.
8:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: So I could get anywhere from three to five hundred pounds of honey a year when I when I got going when I knew what I was doing.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: And I was selling it from the house, and oh, the neighbors thought that was great.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: At first, the neighbors were pretty standoffish about it.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: And but uh then there was that colony collapse disorder that it was in all the media, and people started to take a better view of bees.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: And toward the last, well, what did I know, 15 years?
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, not only were they not only were they not afraid to come near the hives, they would get real close and really want to look at it and say, Well, could I see the bees?
9:24
SPEAKER_01: That was good.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: I that that was a good deed I did, I think.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh or it happened anyway.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: And they would compliment, oh, your honey is the best.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: No, the same bees in the c any bees in this in a certain place are going to make a certain kind of honey.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Nothing to do with me.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: And you still have pets today?
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh up yeah, right here in Montgomery Place, I have two cats.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: How did they adjust to this new environment?
9:49
SPEAKER_01: Better than I thought.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh bet much better than I thought.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh the one looked at my bed and I've been on beds before and up she went.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: In the first ten minutes.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, they they adjusted very well, but they're all different.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And you also have a green thumb, I hear.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of plants.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, my I had a big hobby.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: I the bees were my hobby, but my other hobby, and I was belonged to a group of hobbyists in a club, Midwest Fruit Explorers.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh what we did was growing fruit on home grounds.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: And that was my hobby, and we never went out for quantity, but we had rare varieties, old varieties, and I had a lot of those too.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, that was good.
10:35
SPEAKER_01: We were w what when a group gets involved in a hobby, then we're all crazy.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: And so I was, and they were, and we I had a good time with them.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh centered mostly north, uh not for any reason, it just worked out that way.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: But we we had activities at the Chicago B Botanic Garden, which by coincidence happened to be near my home.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: So we uh we had the opportunity yesterday to um stroll out in the garden a little bit and we saw some of your cacti out there.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: I had I had a lot of them I gave away before I came here.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: I had tall ones.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh I had yeah, I had tall ones that people would uh my home was on the sidewalk that led right to the s village park and to the beach.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: So I had a lot of foot traffic.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: And people would come by and say, you got a big cactus out there, and I talk to them.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: Do you have some bonsai?
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Bonsai, yes.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: That's a very intensive thing.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: The people the uh the people in my fruit growing club were laid back, yeah, help each other out.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: The bonsai people were different.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: They were very serious, and they'd kind of give you their second best answer.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: I I so I love bonsai.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: I had a bunch of them.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: I gave up all the way except two I kept.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, the bonsai was another thing.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be bringing my two bonsai out later.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: So some unique hobbies with animals and uh pets and and plants.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: How how do you think those things have helped you on your aging journey?
12:14
SPEAKER_01: No, even now.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: Um if I just see one of my cats walk by, it's good to see a lot you're sharing the apartment somehow.
12:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: I've often thought, yeah, what if I were just here by myself?
12:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Um and the animals, you learn their habits and they learn your habits.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Um if it's a if it's a cat, you can if it's a dog, you can stop any bad habits they have.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: Cat, not so easy.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: So how about just some other maybe interesting stories or uh fun facts of of being a veterinary and your and your practice?
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay, with cats, uh people more have this good attitude toward dogs.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people that not only don't care one way or another for a cat, they dislike them.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: Here and there I've had somebody their dog would they they've always had dogs and their dog would die when the person was in middle age and not get another dog, so they would almost reluctantly get a cat.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: And the first time they'd bring it in, they'd say, Oh, I I never knew that cats were Yeah, that that that was that happened quite a few times.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: All right, well, we're gonna move into the next section of our podcast, which is entitled The MP3.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: So we ask all of our guests who appear on the Art of Aging podcast these same three questions.
13:41
SPEAKER_02: And today's three questions are sponsored by.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: The art of aging is made possible in part by Unodyne.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Dining at Montgomery Place is made even more special through its partnership with Unodyne.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: More than great food, Unodyne creates memorable dining experiences built on hospitality, connection, and meals prepared with care.
14:03
SPEAKER_02: If you could go back and give your 20-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
14:09
SPEAKER_01: Gee, I can't I can't know be f uh there's things I would have done by the time I was thirty differently, but not by the time I was twenty.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: What would one of those what what would have one of those things been that you would have just to give advice that you would have given yourself to maybe to maybe do something differently or No, I I once I made up my mind to be a veterinarian, I didn't think anything of it.
14:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: I I had a classmate that b uh uh in veterinary school, he practiced for five years and then he went to medical school and he became an MD.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: And I thought I I could do that.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: No, I couldn't.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: Question number two.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: What lesson took you a lifetime to learn?
14:52
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: I I could have in the practice, I could have squeezed more money out of the pet owners if I wanted to.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I I could have what's that old thing?
15:06
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with your dog.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: The lengthy course of treatment won't prolong.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: I could have been there, I could have done that and maybe I was too easygoing on that.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: I I I think I could have made more money.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: But that's all.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: And I never did.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Last question.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: What brings you joy in your life today?
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Now?
15:28
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh I have a daughter living nearby here, and she and her husband are very good to me, and that is bringing me joy.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: I I really uh I'm very happy.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was a good daddy, but most guys are good daddies, so that's not special.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh that brings me joy.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: And I was really enjoying setting up that race bed out there with a little but I liked it.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a really nice area out there in in the garden.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: And it's just another you know, uh the residents take take care of all those pots and boxes and plots and you know, really make their own personal gardens.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: And this is a good thing.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I I I got a way to raise up a little so I can put my bonsai on.
16:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: So that's a really you know, a really unique thing, you know, here at Montgomery Place to, you know, to have to have those gardens.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: And speaking, speaking of the gardens, um, we have a we have a little gift for you um for being a guest on our podcast today.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: And and our gifts are sponsored by Clarence Davis, who are award-winning landscape company who and who take care of our gardens and pots and things.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: They're doing if that's who that is, it's a very good job.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: I have to say that.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: The grass, everything, it's a beautiful job.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: So that's done by Clarence Davis.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: And um, so the gifts, uh the gifts that we have for you today is this wonderful uh mug to put a a cold or warm beverage in there.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: It'll keep it hot or cold um all day long in a stylish art of aging jacket to uh to keep you warm.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: So well, thank you.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for sharing your your your story with us, uh your your passion and your your beekeeping and plants and and animals and being a veterinarian and having having cats and just just how those things help us to stay vibrant and and active and and on our on our journey of of aging.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it's what I'm trying to do.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: Keep smiling.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again to our sponsors, Trinity Rehab, Unodyne, Life Care at Home, and Plant Moran.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep living fully, keep aging artfully, and keep sharing those stories that matter most.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching and listening.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time on the Art of Aging.org.