The Luckiest Dog in the World

He didn’t start out so lucky; he was a back yard dog. He would get loose sometimes and one day the mailman who loved dogs, who just happened to be my husband, brought him home. His name was Lucky. He was an expensive looking yellow lab; we couldn’t keep him so I took him back, and he went back to being a backyard dog. Then one day he disappeared from that backyard and reappeared in some kind hearted old man’s front yard. He was loose yet he didn’t seem inclined to go back home. The mailman who loved dogs brought him home again. This time for keeps. He changed his name to Buddy. Now the mailman is gone; all his other dogs are gone too. Buddy is an old dog now, at least in years. But his step is young. Every day he plays fetch on a grassy field near where we live. He fetches until he is panting hard. Then he allows me to come home. He won’t let me skip a single day. He does it all for me; he believes that I love to play fetch. But I know the truth: he is the luckiest dog in the world.

The Crow

I often take my dog over to a grassy area shaded by large trees to play fetch. Once while we were there I noticed a flock of crows flying together from tree to tree. They would sit and talk for a while then go to another tree. Then as if a decision had finally been made they all flew off in the same direction. I noticed that two crows were still in one of the trees. They “chatted” back and forth for a while then one flew off in the same direction as the others, leaving the other one alone. It sat on the branch the whole time we were there. I wondered why it was just sitting there.

I remembered once seeing some smaller birds harassing a crow, I assumed, to get it to leave their nesting area. At another time, with another dog that I sometimes walked in that same area with, the crows would dive down at him whenever we appeared. I’m not sure, but I believe that this was not a friendly gesture on their part. Quite often crows are seen all alone. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what made this crow stay there separated from its clan. I was concerned that it was injured. Then as I was about to leave it swooped down gracefully and headed off in the same direction the other crows had taken.

Why did it stay there? Had it had an argument with the rest of the crows? Was it angry, or sad about something? Did it just need to be alone for a while? Whatever was the reason, it had triggered something deep within me that I call my separation complex.

The Squirrel

I was sitting on my couch eating my customary supper, a huge salad, when I noticed my squirrel friend watching me. He sat and watched me for a little while. Then he climbed down the post and immediately came back with some elm seeds which he munched on. Every once in a while he would go back down the post to get himself some more seeds. Then would sit there eating them, pensively looking at me. It seemed to me as if we were sharing a peaceful meal together.

When I was finished I noticed that he was still going down to get seeds and eating them. I thought that his food wasn’t concentrated enough for him so I took some hulled sunflower and pumpkin seeds out and left them for him on his post. Soon he and all of his many relatives were quarreling over those seeds. I figured I could have fed all of his relatives but then would it be good for them to have such an easy source of calories? I reasoned that it probably wouldn’t be; it’s not so good for us, after all. I decided to get him some “critter food” next time I go to the grocery store.

Ants

Have you ever noticed the little tiny ants that swarm to the surface of the earth like fishes coming up from the depths of the sea. They come up in one location; then in another and another, as if it really doesn’t matter to them where they come up. Unless the earth is everywhere just underneath the surface, teaming with these little brown creatures, they must be able to move through the earth almost as easily as fish move through water.

And why do they come up to the surface? To fill their livers with vitamin D (do ants have livers?) To get fresh air? They don’t seem to eat any of the plants so it can’t be to get fresh vegetation. Until someone enlightens me on this subject, it will remain a mystery to me.

Foxes

Another time I was walking in this same location with a friend and we saw a pair of red foxes. They were healthy and sleek looking. Thankfully neither we nor the foxes seemed to be downwind of each other because we had two dogs and the foxes and the dogs seemed to be oblivious of each other. I had never seen any wild foxes in this part of Idaho. They were just sauntering along as if they were in no danger at all, from any source. The really amazing thing is that this area, while it appears to be very wild, is ringed with houses and bordered by the freeway. Many of the households have dogs. I hope they were wise enough to leave the area at nightfall.

Mountain Blue Birds

I used to walk with my dog up in a little valley that is between the freeway and the city. This is a beautiful little area of wild (except that people sometimes dump their garbage up there). One time I noticed the hillside was covered with specks of brilliant blue which would all lift up into the air and then settle in another location. They were birds, Mountain Bluebirds to be precise. One of them came up very close to me and sat on a branch of sage, I suppose to see if I was any threat to them. It was such a beautiful hue of blue as to be indescribable. These birds were the blue of the Idaho sky after it has been washed with a hard rain. I had never before seen them there, and I have not seen them since.

Parent Birds

I was outside one day when I heard strange sounds from the street. I ducked under the evergreens that grow in front of the house, quietly, to see what made the noise. It was four large black birds (crows) on the street, making human-like sounds. One of them was picking up something looking like French fries and feeding them to the others. I surmised that the one doing the feeding was the parent, although they were all approximately the same size. The thing that made this so memorable was the cooperation among the birds and the human like sounds they were making. This reminded me of two robins I had seen earlier. They looked to be the same size as eachother, like the crows, but one of them was offering the other one an earth worm.