Praying Mantis – Bravery? or Suicide Wish?

September 13, 2009September 13, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

PrayingMantis-OnStep

This morning as I opened windows and doors for the wonderful fresh air, I noticed a small-ish bright green fellow (or lady) on the top of my side porch stairs. It was clearly a young praying mantis, so I very quietly went to check her out. She is about 3″ long, which makes her still a youngster, and in the way that only a praying mantis can do, she rotated her head, watching my every move as I viewed her from every angle without getting too close as to disturb her. Time to get the camera!

PrayingMantis-Pumpkin By the time I’d come back out, Pumpkin, the orange cat next door, was coming over to say hello and see what was happening, and was now right next to the praying mantis. I figured the mantis was a goner, but Pumpkin was totally oblivious to her presence. What was more amazing was that the mantis, while watching Pumpkin’s every move, (she’s actually looking right at him in this photo), only made one tiny move herself. It was quite easy to catch a couple photos after which I quickly lured Pumpkin to my back door and away from the mantis.

Now I know we’re not talking suicide wish here, but I have to imagine there is a sort of instinctual or inbred mantis bravery in maintaining one’s position in the face of a “monster” so much larger. I also understand the concept of camouflage in nature, but have to wonder … does a young praying mantis not yet know that they’re not exactly blending in?

So after Pumpkin had gotten bored and had exited the porch via the back steps, I switched to close-up mode and returned to snap a few more shots of my very photogenic subject.

PrayingMantis

p.s. I just checked, and sunning herself on the side of the house is the now almost glowing, bright green praying mantis . I expect looking for a more suitably sized meal than Pumpkin is on her agenda.

Conversations with Fiona

September 9, 2009 / still a dreamer / 1 Comment

Fiona-Smudge She appeared out of nowhere. She was clearly hungry and looking for food. She was also, as best I could tell, feral, although immaculately clean, as even the wildest of cats can be.

I offered her some of the dry food which I feed my own cats and she inhaled it. Any move towards her and she ran off the back porch to points unknown. She soon discovered, however, that there was always food on my back porch for the cats next door, who are outside days, inside nights. For reasons unknown, I named her Fiona.

Our conversations have been mostly long eye blinks, (“I love you” for cats), and my cooing to her in the most assuring tones I can offer a frightened animal. We got along in our distant way, and a few weeks ago, she ate while I read my book on the back porch, and then nodded off. I accepted this as quite the compliment.

She disappeared for a week and has since returned. This past Saturday while I baked, she seemed to enjoy the kitchen sounds and my occasional cooing to her. She fell asleep with her head leaning on the food bowl. This morning she was waiting for me. I fed her, and she has now dared to come about 4′ away from me. I sat on my haunches near one set of steps on the back porch while she sat and we exchanged long, long blinks.

I wonder where she has come from and where she goes at night. Does she actually belong to someone? I’m not really even sure if Fiona is a female, and it’s not easy to tell with her somewhat bushy tail. Looking at her face, I’m thinking to rename her Smudge for the white smudges on her nose, a name for all sexes, knowing all the while, she may well have a home somewhere in the neighborhood and another name.

Having just peeked outside my side door, I see she has fallen sound asleep on the second step, in earshot of my voice and activity. I wonder where our conversations will lead.

Winged Migration – A Spectacular Visual Treat

August 18, 2009August 18, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

WingedMigration-flamingos This movie, released in 2003, is one of the most spectacular I have seen. There is almost no narration, there are occasional notes on the bottom of the screen indicating the type of bird and the location and distance it flies during migration, and the most incredible music created just for the film. Not to mention breathtaking landscapes from one end of the world to the other. What is even more extraordinary, is how the birds were filmed – the view is most often from the bird’s perspective. For bird/wild bird lovers or just nature lovers, this is one to see. Available on Netflix.

Be sure to see the Special Features and you’ll be amazed at the 4 year chronicle it took to make this film and how the birds were filmed this way. I smiled in wonder all through the movie and again just watching the trailer. For a sneak peek, check out the trailer.

Dogsong – Gary Paulsen

August 7, 2009August 9, 2009 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Dogsong-GPaulsen2 There are times when I’ve finished a book, that I don’t quite know where to put it. In my head, that is. The book is so different from anything I’ve read, that it seems to be searching for a place to settle in my mental bookshelf, and meanwhile, it seems to hover in space.

Dogsong by Gary Paulsen is one of those books. It might be best defined as a coming-of-age story where a 14 year old Inuit boy, Russell, restless in his own life, searches to find himself. In so doing he moves in with an elder where he is taught how to hunt, run the dogs and survive. And then he lives it, gradually becoming one with his dogs. This is an oversimplification and doesn’t do justice to the nuances in the story, so let me just say it was a very compelling read.

Perhaps why it hasn’t settled in yet is that it is a vignette of a life so totally different from my own or even what I could imagine an Eskimo tribe’s life in Alaska might be, that there is not a real frame of reference for it in my head. And yet, I could not help but be in the trance with Russell, in the dream, to merge with the spirits of the dogs, as he trekked blindly in the snow for days, never seeing a single soul or a source of food.

I read up on Gary Paulsen the author of Dogsong plus a good bunch of other MG and YA novels he has written. I suspect these have the greatest appeal to boys, but maybe not. Paulsen ran away from home at 14, and his life – he is now around 70 – has been a series of amazing adventures in all kinds of situations and locations. Among his experiences has been living in Alaska where he has run the Iditarod twice. And while I am no fan of the Iditarod because of the suffering of too many of the dogs, Paulsen has truly lived that life in Alaska so as to have written this book from a deeply authentic perspective. I have to truly admire Paulsen for how he has lived his life; he’s humble, adventurous beyond what I could imagine, and just … well … very real.

Reading about him explained a lot about the book in a way; my personal connection with dogs/animals deepened the meaning; my willingness to try “living” in such a different culture helped. Soon Dogsong will find a place and settle in.

Perusing my bookshelves once again led me to one of my many finds at the annual county library sale and to as different a book from Dogsong as I could get – one by Candace Bushnell of Sex and the City fame. I loved the series, never read the book, but figured how far wrong could I go? We’ll see …

Freshness Expert

July 23, 2009July 27, 2009 / still a dreamer

FreshnessExpertw One of the things that is so endearing about our pets is how they come up with these little quirky behaviors on their own.

One of my cats is the official, self-appointed Freshness Expert (and yes, that is with a capital F and E.) Just ask her.

Whenever I open a new bag of their food and am about to pour it into their little storage tin, Mewsette appears in a flash from anywhere. It’s her job to check the food, sample a few pieces, and assure the rest of us that it’s safe for consumption and, indeed, as fresh as the package dating promises. That done, she leaves the room and returns to whatever she was doing before.

FreshnessExpert2w “My work is done here!” she affirms.

Recently, she discovered that I had something 3-dimensional in my glass of water, although adding ice is hardly something I just started 2 weeks ago. She insisted on getting her little muzzle in there, (so yes, that was the end of that glass of ice water for me), and couldn’t get enough. Now when I give her fresh water after dinner, I add an ice cube to her bowl. Unlike the other two, who’d be playing ice cube hockey all over the kitchen floor in minutes, Mewsette does not want to play with it. She delicately laps the water keeping her tongue on the ice cube as much as possible. Ahhhhhhhh – refreshing!

So she has now expanded her credits to both Freshness Expert AND Ice Cube Connoisseur.