Dogs are my friends as a rule. Emily, our labrador youngster, is becoming a great one and has fit into our family beautifully–that is if you can overlook a couple of minor behavior problems. Somewhere in her ancestry, a terrier is hiding in the DNA patch. When her prey drive kicks in, she is transformed as if she had been under Dr. Jekyll’s care or been bitten by Lon Chaney in his movie role as the werewolf. Oh, the birds are safe-and we have them in spades: pileated woodpeckers, red-shouldered hawks and a co-dependent family of blue birds that maintains a lease on our bird house(mainly enforced by the blue birds’ hostile expressions- have you noticed they wear a perpetual grimmace?). But if it has fur and stays on the ground for very long, Emily is going to get it!
The crows are the informers who keep us posted. Their network of spies summon the feathered tribe whenever a cat, a snake or a hawk is hunting in our woods. They keep up an alarming racket, even daring to swoop down on the hawks. They are at least as big as the red shouldered hawks, but lack any truly lethal weapons like talons or sharp beaks. Instead, they rely on their numbers and a cacophony of squawks to harass the raptors. Emily always watches attentively when they are making a fuss. She knows something is afoot.
Emily has a habit of sitting in the living room window every morning and night, and often growls under her breath. Straining our eyes to catch a glimpse of what arouses her, we finally give up, thinking perhaps she has caught a glimpse of a deer crossing the road. But, in fact, that was not her quarry.
One morning after Emily had given up watching in favor of bounding around the backyard chasing squirrels, we caught sight of a reddish- tan ball of fur sitting on the edge of the woods. It was a fox-a big red fox- with a billowy tail, its sides tinged with dark gray and standing perhaps more than half Emily’s considerable size. This really thrilled us, because we feared all the foxes had been displaced by the invasive coyotes- and the unstoppable urban sprawl.
A day or two later, we spotted the fox again, this time walking ahead of us on our evening stroll, ranging through the front yards of our neighbors. He kept his distance, but was clearly familiar and unafraid when it came to human beings. Since then, we have seen a fox at twilight several times crossing the road to follow our little creek (known to us as “Rocky Comfort Creek”) as it wanders down the drainage easement of thick forest through our pretty heavily populated neighborhood. Since a friend near Vienna, Georgia was bitten in his garage by a rabid fox (and had to undergo the painful shots), I keep my distance from our red raider, but I am fascinated and thrilled to know that development has not crowded the foxes out.
This reminds me of a tale from my years at Pebble Hill Plantation where I was director for a decade. I heard repeatedly a story, told by elderly and often life-time employees, about the capture of a pair of foxes on the plantation. They were caged and kept as a pair and were even given names. Personalities were ascribed to them. They were devoted to each other, and lovingly raised a litter of kits. Foxes seem to mate for life and the two were clearly a pair. When the male fox died, the female-it was said-grieved herself to death, dying of loneliness.
This is fanciful, I suppose, but foxes, like most creatures -especially birds and mammals- are sentient creatures. New revelations about animals’ intelligence and their emotions come to light every day: the female elephants who take in the orphan after its mother is killed by ivory outlaws, the great ape that rescues a human infant who has fallen into his pen at the zoo, the crow that learns to solve complex puzzles to get at a morsel of food, or learns to recognize unfriendly faces and passes that knowledge on to its young, or the complex languages of parrots and whales. I am no scientist, and my hunting days are long past, but I have always heeded my mother’s and father’s admonition: “Don’t kill it unless you plan to eat it.” Once I did have a stringy meal of sparrow. I was barely old enough to fire the shotgun my father allowed me to fire just once, but I hit a tiny hapless bird skipping along a row of already picked cotton.
After a lifetime’s association with dogs and wildlife, I feel confident that animals, especially birds and mammals, exist on a plane of intelligence and sensitivity that most of us once believed was the exclusive domain of human beings. I think it would be a mistake to imagine that animals aspire to be human. Instead, I think they share our nature and we, theirs.
Unable to attend church services during the Covid pandemic, we have taken to watching services carried on You Tube from Canterbury Cathedral in England, center of the world-wide Anglican Communion which includes our own Episcopal Church. Each morning the Dean of the Cathedral reads Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer with lots of insightful and delightful remarks about the day’s psalm and scriptures. He does this (weather permitting) in the garden, where there are birds, beautiful plants, cats, and a pig pen. I have no doubt that any church that featured a service that met in such surrounding occasionally, with living creatures and plants in amazing array, likely would appeal to new and different worshipers, as well as to its regular members in new and endearing ways. It is more difficult to be critical and accusing in the presence of animals-they are (for the most part) indifferent to our failings. And, we seem to find their ordinary activities charming and a source of mesmerizing entertainment. We should be so charitable to each other.
Thanks Joe, enjoy ALL your stories
Enjoyed.
This is a great story.Yes squirrels do raid bird nest because they are opportunistic creatures. They eat the eggs and the small hatchlings .We put flashing around our blue bird pole, so the raiders cannot climb it.Also you can put a piece of metal around the hole to prevent chewing.None of this stops the black snakes . I read about putting bird netting at the base of the pole to prevent the snakes from climbing the pole.They will get tangled in it. So does Toms trim lawn mower.
Sue,
So good to hear from you. I have installed sheet metal around my bird house post and installed the little copper ring around the entry as you suggest. Because we live on the edge of the woods we have to watch out for lots of things that threaten our garden, bird feeders and our compost bin. But, then Emily rampages in her quest for moles, voles and squirrels. Hope you are writing. We are fans of GPTV and my friend Jamil Zainaldin (retired president of the Georgia Humanities Council) called to say that Georgia State has done a film based on Kaye Menschew’s book on that subject. It was very well done and I am sure you will run across it either on GPTV or the Georgia State PBS Channel-and even You Tube. You can als see the much acclaimed Warm Springs film (with Kenneth Brannaugh as FDR) on You Tube. Kaye’s film brought to mind you remarkable account of you family’s buying their first electric cook stove at the hardware in ___? (was it Ball Ground?). In Kaye’s film the rural electrification of the south given prominence, and indeed, my grandparents did not get electricity until the late 1930’s as a result of TVA and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA). Earlier, y grandfather was a mechanic and connected a generator to the wind mill above his well. He stored power in dry cells and had a modicum of light from small lamps.
Joe
Thanks Joe
In my story it was a washing machine and bought at Densmores appliance store in Ball Ground.Yes I’m in the final stage of editing my book.
Which way did he go, George. Which way did he go?
Neil,
Please note that I did not mention who or where this friend was who was bitten. Thanks for the pecans, by the way. Karen slaps my hand every time I reach into the stash. She is saving them for baking. Whiie picking up ime real south Georgia long leaf pine straw in a small roadside fruit stand in Jasper, Georgia, I noticed fresh fried pies for sale-including a fried pecan pie. Having never even heard of such a thing,
I had to try one. It was delicious, though maybe not quite as good as one with an oven- baked crust. Thanks for reading!
Joe
Hi Marnette,
I always hear more responses when I write about dogs and wildlife. Glad to hear you are not so far away. We have spend part of the day covering all our just-now blooming plants for the cold weather expected overnight. What a chore-and what a disappointment if spring flowers and veggies get nipped. My favorites, the hydrangeas, are already stung from the last cold spell. Thanks for reading.
Joe
Hope your plants made it through last night. HD will heavily water their outdoor plants and the water freezes, the plants are covered with ice, but ice melts in the morning and plants are OK – but only for one overnight freeze/frost. The plants look beautiful in the morning when the sun rises over the mts and shines through the ice. – I think it is worthy of a quick trip to HD at dawn….just to see the beauty of the ice on the plants.
And…we are having a meteor shower now – the Lyrid Meteor shower peaks now and runs for about 5 more days.
https://www.space.com/lyrid-meteor-shower-2021-peaking-now
Thanks again for your great writings. I thoroughly enjoy them. And for the leads you share on additional books and authors – I LOVE Georgia History. Thanks again.
And to Emily, Happy Hunting.
Marnette,
Not many folks seem to catch on to my reviews. Most have very important things about southern history-though the titles may may imply a wider or different settings. Cowboy Kingdom is a good example and a new book just out hammers it down (Why the South Won the Civil War). Both explain how the west was settled mostly by southerners, early workers (cowboys) and speculators (southerners looking for ways to invest their capital outside the south- trends that were underway even before the Civil War. Empire of Cotton, A Killing at Ring jaw Bluff and Bubble in he Sun, all of which I reviewed, explain much about Georgia and southern history. Local history often lacks perspective and fails to explain how wider events influenced conditions and outcomes in our part of the world.
Its revealing that you find beauty even at Home Depot!
Joe
Thank you Joe. This is another beautiful posting. I sure can relate to it.
So…you killed a sparrow at one time and…had to eat your kill. That is very funny.
I truly enjoyed your subtle humor and the little points of great interest to me.
I work outside at Home Depot, Blairsville, GA and one customer brings in his young English Setter regularly. The setter points then stalks all the sparrows we have outside the front door. Fun to see.
And watching Canterbury Cathedral on TV! What a great idea and enlightening experience!
Always enjoy your excellently written and totally enjoyable postings.
Oops – gotta sign off quickly – my two pups are tearing apart their “piddle pads” right now.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share. Much Enjoy.
lovely story
Deborah,
I appreiate your reading and responding. Seems I always get the biggest respons when I write about dogs and nature.
Joe
I can imagine Emily watching out the front window. Our Daisy does the same thing and if and when she sees something, we hear a loud bark rather than a soft growl. She would be a hunter like her ancestors in Germany if not for the short Dachshund legs she has. She would roam our 2 acres if allowed but she knows she is not allowed out without an adult! Loved this story.
Martha,
Animals change our outlook and invite deeper reflection.
Great story, Dr. Joe. Seems like we humans would do well to go back to our animal instincts which would be more principled and ethical.
Thanks-my thoughts in a nutshell!