I had my iguana for 17 years–a little tiny thing, at first–and I still miss him today, 40-plus years since he passed on. He was here long enough to get the idea that he was just another kind of cat or dog.
Animals do respond to attention and affection. Most of us know that!
And now I have to break…
That’s adorable. Attention and affection are important. When I go for a bike ride, I make a point to greet various animals that I see along the way. There’s one dog who starts baying when she sees me coming, so I tell her what an amazing animal she is and her tail wags. She doesn’t understand the words, but she does understand that she’s being noticed and getting attention. There are a few other animals I see regularly, during my rides, and it’s always worth the time to speak a greeting, and use their name, if I happen to know it. There’s a beautiful, majestic horse that I greet by name and he always responds.
Animals are a Divine gift, and we should treat them with kindness and appreciation.
I envy you that.
I consider it a blessing. I don’t live in a fancy neighborhood, by any means, but there are several places with horses, and even the smaller places have nice big yards for their dogs. Between that, and the abundant deer in the area, I see a lot of animals during my rides.
Animals keep us rooted. In a world filled with all sorts of virtual things, animals are real. They are essential to civilization. Dogs are very important in managing herds of domestic animals. Cats are very useful to any civilization that wishes to store grains without massive losses to rodents. Domestic animals tend to be docile and gentle with children and most children take delight in pets. Human life would be sterile and empty without animals.
We do have a few deer around, and a fox or two. We used to have more until the cut down half the trees… all in the name of Progress, of course.
There are a lot of deer here. I find that surprising, because after all, this is a desert, but the deer seem to prosper here. There were foxes in a nearby town, some years back, but I haven’t heard of any recently. Coyotes are a real problem. If I never saw one a coyote again, that would be fine by me.
The deer are pleasant to have around. There was one in my back yard, earlier today. Sometimes the herd will choose to take rest in my yard and many of the deer are so tame that they don’t run away when I go outside. Some herds, however, can be very skittish. I passed a small herd on today’s ride and they bolted as soon as they saw me. It’s strange, because most of the local deer will get very close to you, if they think that they can beg something to eat from you. I don’t feed the deer, but apparently a lot of people do.
What is really humorous is how my cat reacts to them, and how they react to her. My cat bristles when she sees a deer in the yard and if the deer are near the window, they jump back, but stay nearby and watch her carefully. She, in turn, watches their every move and makes sure that they behave themselves, because after all, it’s her yard.
It’s getting harder and harder on wildlife in this town. I haven’t seen a bunny or a possum in ages. The fox seems to have checked out, too.
Where I live, houses are spaced fairly far apart and just a few miles from here there’s a small mountain range where wildlife flourishes. Mountains form a different climate from the open desert, because as elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler and less harsh. In the winter, the deer gravitate to the lower elevations so we have even more deer in the colder months.
We used to have salamanders and snakes around here, but I haven’t seen any in years. More Progress!
We have numerous Swifts and all sorts of snakes. For the most part, the snakes avoid humans, so you see them rarely. A few years back, I saw an Arizona Coral Snake, a couple of miles from here.
Arizona Coral Snakes are beautiful and are not known to be aggressive. Seeing one was a real treat.
Wow, that was a big one!
Yeah, quite a bit bigger than mine.