Tag: The Wild

The Young One

Depending on time of year…

And animal species…

Children abound.

Some are four legged, some are feathered.

Some slither and dither.

The Wild is particular about birthing young.

Generally, it likes young to have Spring through Fall to fatten, to prepare for Winter.

There are many strategies involved.

One which is not closely tied to seasons is Rabbit. Rabbit’s strategy is to have a lot of young and often.

But Rabbit doesn’t do a great job of mothering. Births occur in the open and young are left unattended while parents forage.

Not so with Brother and Mother Coyote.

Coyote protects her children fiercely.

Except around me and mine.

Somehow, we are known to be safe.

For which we’re glad.

 

Just Paying Attention

The Wild is ever vigilant. Sleep, that deep, profound, dream-laden land of Morpheus, is forbidden The Wild by evolutionary design.

Pets are embraced by Morpheus (at least, should be. Some people don’t deserve pets) because modern pets – those not kept outside or in a barn – recognize the safety within the walls of home.

Their den, as it were.

When your cat purrs in its sleep, when your dog woofs and twitches, when your bird tucks its head under a wing, it communes with its kin through all time knowing such journeys undertaken are safe.

Not so in The Wild.

There evolution forbids deep rest because deep rest equates to being prey.

Western cultured two-Leggers have only enjoyed deep sleep (many, anyway. Definitely not most or all) for perhaps the past two-hundred years, basically since the industrial revolution, when group recognition fell from village or tribe and climbed to housing project or job.

Light sleepers’ non-conscious minds remember The Wild and pay attention.

Do you?

 

Two Young Ladies Watching a Little Boo Butt

There is mirth in The Wild. One might not think it so, especially considering the common “knowledge” that there is no intelligence in The Wild.

This from a species which has only been on the planet some 2-400,000 years.

Consider the age of most other species and we are, indeed, the new kids on the block.

But there is mirth.

Often hidden, and there.

Especially when you catch some raccoons checking out a little Boo butt.

Such shameless hussies…

 

Advance Guard

When one sees a solitary member of a normally large, mobile population, one begins to wonder.

What are these solitaries doing?

In my yard?

Typical Two-Legger thinking, that. “my yard”

Yeah, right.

The Wild doesn’t recognize property rights.

Not sure if I’d call it’s system communal. Egalitarian? Maybe.

Definitely natural.

The Wild is not a place to go unprepared, uninformed, or worse, misinformed.

This turkey, you’ll note, is prepared and informed.

And still I wonder, what’s she doing in this patch of The Wild?

An advance guard, perhaps.

Scouting to ensure safety for the rest.