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Just for fun, during the past week, I made a note each time I saw or heard something animal-related. When I look at this list in context, I’m amazed all over again how a change in place changes our conversations. I’ve been thinking back to what the common conversation thread might have been in my past life in a newsroom. Some talk of animals would have filtered in: I did, after all, sit next to the paper’s farm reporter for many years. Mainly, any chit-chat there was time for was about our kids. I believe all of our back-then kids would have enjoyed the following animal bytes.
A tenor-toned frog has been offering melancholy serenades at bedtime — and on in to the wee hours. I don’t know much about frogs, but I’ve seen several Facebook posts about their nighttime habits of late. Male suitors seeking springtime mates perhaps? (One of my goals is to learn something with each of my animal posts. I just did: Frogs overwinter more or less hibernating in mud and damp soil.)
Lilly, the barn cat I wrote fondly of a few weeks back, has a tummy sagging with kittens-in-the-making. We can’t help but marvel as her stripes keep, well, expanding exponentially. Her fave napping spot is on the horse blankets atop my saddle in the tack room. I hope that won’t be her chosen birthing spot!
The cougar, North America's largest native cat. WL Miller photo from weforanimals.com
At our monthly book club potluck, mention was made of our host’s neighbor having caught sight of a mountain lion in the driveway they share. It’s not unexpected to hear claims of cougars — North America’s largest native cat, often seen screaming from a cliff in old Western movies – out here in the woods. It’s quite sobering, however, when you hear there’s one only a few driveways from your home. Driveways out here can be miles apart: Still, I wonder if it’s out there watching us as we move about our place.
Okay, I know there is a world of difference (not to mention continents) between cougars and lions. But when I found my husband watching a movie about man-eating lions in Africa the next night, I suggested his timing was quite poor. I did use the puma–in-the-neighborhood theme to my advantage on April 1. I tricked my son into grabbing his camera to take a photo by telling him the mountain lion was drinking from our pond down the hill. April Fools’!
Speaking of predator types, my husband, Jim, described a scene I
Coyotes are generally lone hunters, because they prey mainly on small mammals and rodents. Coordinated pack hunting comes into play when the quarry is large game, such as elk. John Good photo from weforanimals.com
think I’m glad I wasn’t home to see. From time to time we hear coyotes, usually at night, their plaintive howls and cries following them across the valley floor. Jim was feeding our chickens one morning when he saw a coyote trotting alongside the woods below. He noticed another leave the woods right behind. Then, two coyotes exited the far side of the woods, moving in the same direction as the first pair. He glanced that way and saw elk grazing on the hillside above. The pack had a plan in motion.
We keep guns locked in a safe; but Jim ran inside, and was able to grab one and fire off a few shots over the heads of the stalking coyotes. They scattered, and the elk moved calmly up the hill away from the woods. Why do we feel so protective of the elk? Many farmers don’t.The half-ton animals hurdle over or shoulder through fences to graze in cultivated fields. I want the coyotes to survive, and the elk, too. I know this is all part of nature and the circle of life, and yet….
Wolves remain on America's Endangered Species list. From weforanimals.com
A similar debate about wolves continues here in America’s Pacific Northwest. Wolves remain on the Endangered Species list. For decades, they were absent from our state, historically, their home turf. They are reappearing. Experts say there are 29 in Oregon’s remote northeast. It’s ranch country with cattle herds and sheep flocks easy prey, some say. Others state that domestic dogs kill far more livestock than wolves. Our local NPR station aired a both-sides-now conversation about wolves. Here’s the link, if you’d like to have a listen.
Gotta end with a smile-maker. I attended a Faith and Culture Writers Conference with two women friends. As one picked up her Bible, the soft leather cover stayed in her hand and the bounty of whisper-thin pages of gospels and verse fell away. When she’d picked up and reassembled it all, I noticed a corner that looked chewed-on.
The dog did it, my friend explained: “We have a 67-pound black Lab puppy, named Kohl. My husband called me at work one morning to tell me he’d made a discovery: Kohl had been conducting his own version of Bible study. My husband found the cover of my Bible in our living room, and the Old and New Testaments in our family room.” Guess Kohl was spreading The Word, we joked. Now her Bible is not only well-loved, but a tad dog-eared! I’m sure Kohl’s been forgiven: Dog, spelled backward, does spell God.
At least a baker’s dozen animal bytes remain from my week of country conversing and eavesdropping. I hope you’ll find the next collection as sweet as, well, a bear claw bakery treat.
Bear claw, an almond-flavored sweet pastry popular in America. From datasource.com
