Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
I wrote a few weeks back about a flirting Tom in OOh OOh Ain’t I Pretty?.
That fellow’s at it again…and with much the same results.
Watching mating behaviors amuses me greatly.
Sometimes I even watch The Wild‘s mating behaviors.
Nowhere near as amusing as Two-Legs’ behaviors, though…
We are Graced by Coyote.
(Note the capital “G” above. No fool, I)
This sprightly gent dines elegantly on an apple core I tossed into our yard. Opossum most often dine on fruits and veges we offer, and Opossum can be right persnickety when they’re dining. Coyote avoid them more often than not.
Which tells us this fellow dines sans Opossum as either guest or host.
But there are Raccoon around because we can hear them chastising this handsome lad.
We leave out apple cores because a favorite snack (for me) is Granny Smith apples and chunky peanut butter (love the chunky kind, not so much the smooth kind (and that description tells you much about me and why I chose as I did)).
I often sit outside and The Wild come to me, take from my hand and dine with me.
Heck, Raccoon and Skunk come into my lap (I sit on the ground usually), stand up supporting themselves with their forepaws on my chest, and sniff my breath to determine if what I’m munching on is better than what I offer them (I do not recommend others do this).
Makes me wonder if I should share some apples and peanut butter with them.
Or with this fellow, any way.
Enjoy.
Behold Erasmus.
At first somewhat shy, then not so much so.
It’s amazing what free food can do.
Coyote are like that.
Free food, little effort, it’s a good thing. Especially in The Wild.
I noticed much the same during the middle to late 1980s where the mere mention of free sex and cocaine would cause people to flock from miles around.
Did I say “miles”?
More like states.
Pretty easy to do in New England.
And in the meantime, we’ll let Erasmus dine.
Enjoy.
Continuing from last week’s Oh, They’re Quick, You know…, a somewhat longer installment in the ongoing lives of Coyote.
First, let’s recognize there’s nothing like a good scratch.
Scratching, with humans, has many triggers. Often humans scratching is simply a response to something moving on the skin. An insect, for example, or a piece of falling debris.
It can also be an indication of uncleanliness, and that gets us into grooming behaviors, something I discuss in my That Th!nk You Do books. Not all grooming behaviors are triggered by uncleanliness and all grooming behaviors have a social function even when the individual is self-grooming.
One of most fascinating triggers for scratching is BMIRs – Behavioral Manifestations of Internal Responses.
The individual who scratches their face, their arms, their hands, their head, any body part, is often signalling an internal response to their environment, their situation, what’s going on around them and what they’re immediately focusing their attention on.
That last part – immediately focusing their attention on – is important. A BMIR can be triggered by a memory, an anticipated event (future projection). I explain aspects of BMIRs in the aforementioned That Th!nk You Do books and also demonstrate their use in my The Augmented Man.
(not suggesting you buy them (although you should!), just sharing resources for you)
The Wild is not much different.
So beware.
The Wild has memories and anticipations, too.
They can be quick, you know.
Sneaky.
And quick.
Perhaps they have something else to do?
Ever wonder if The Wild makes appointments?
If Coyote has other matters it must attend?
Aside from changing seasons, aside from sudden weather changes (is there such a thing as a “sudden weather change” in The Wild? I mean, aren’t they aware of such things? Doesn’t their weather-wizardry put Two-Legs’ best meteorologists to shame? One wonders…).
They know they must return to their den, their nest, their roost, their burrow, to feed young, to check on mates, to do things only The Old Ones alone know how to do or which even should be done?
One wonders…
If only we had the millions of years of accumulated wisdom as do they.
We do, of course. We are both products of evolution.
The big difference, me thinks, is they pay attention.
We don’t.