Local wildlife

One of the painful things about leaving my old house was that I was leaving the wildlife behind. I had so many geese and crow friends, not to mention squirrels and groundhogs and all sorts of other critters. I hope someone takes care of them now that I'm gone.

As soon as I got to the new place, I scouted out the terrain and I'm happy to report that -- due to the miracle of peanuts -- I've established a great relationship with the local crows. Already, they wait for me on a particular fence at about noon. They know I'm coming. It's so sweet to see five or six crows waiting all in a row. It's hot outside today and I might have skipped my walk but I had to feed the crows. I mean, how could they possibly get by without me? So I trotted out into the breezeless humidity and suffered for my pals. One treat: on the way back, they followed me and settled into the tree right outside my house. From there, they serenaded me with friendly caws. I find crows always want to give back. They're actually sweet. (I know, I know; they murder little birds. But that's what they're supposed to do.)

Moving right along, I've also made friends with a horse. Okay, okay, so horses aren't exactly "wildlife". But they're so new to me, they may as well be. This horse is hurt with a muscle sprain and has to spend her days in a round, covered pen that has a radius of about 20 feet. She has room to pace, it's cool in there, and there are two windows she can stick her head out of, which she does all the time in an attempt to find people to play with.

The first time I saw her I could tell she wanted company. And did she! This is the huggiest horse ever. I'm 6'5", so I'm way up there, right around a horse's head. This makes it especially nice to hug with her. And all right, so it's me that's doing all the hugging. But she presses back with her head and nuzzles it into my chest and stomach. And at some point, she does something very friendly -- she snurfles my hand! I don't know what else to call it. She kind of puts my hand in her mouth, but not where her teeth are. She lays her huge wet lips over my hand and slobbers on it in a very friendly way. It's so sweet! I guess it's kind of like when dogs lick your hand. Have you ever had a horse snurfle your hand? It's not to be missed.

[PS: A horse trainer told me this is fine but you never want to stick your fingers directly into the mouth. Apparently, the horse might bite you without meaning to. (Or it might want to; there's always that.) She said "lips are fine". And they are!]

That's kind of it, so far. I'm sure I'll make more friends out there but this is a great start. I had no idea what I was missing by living in Manhattan most of my life. Concrete ain't it, kid.

Peanut allergies

I have intense allergic reactions to many natural things. I went to an allergy clinic long ago and a doctor began to poke needles in my arm, to learn what I was allergic to. He stopped midway through the process, laughed and said, "You're allergic to everything." Luckily, this changed for the better as I got older. I still have to be hauled to an emergency room now and then, but it's way better than when I was a child.

Okay, that was a digression. Here's the thing. I do not suffer from peanut allergies. I eat them all the time. My local grocery store has begun to sell 5-lb. bags of peanuts (in the shell) for $5.99 -- a monster bargain. I buy six of these bags every couple of weeks -- to feed the crows, squirrels and jays.

When I tear open one of these bags, an intense peanut smell wafts up to me. And in that moment, I can almost understand why people have violent allergic reactions to peanuts. There's something intense and different about the scent. To someone as allergic as I am, it hints at power of these things. I can almost sense its ability to choke and overwhelm a person. Peanuts are powerful. I get it.

Wikipedia Commons image by Pollinator

Gotta walk

Since I sit in a chair all damn day, I've decided to take up walking. It means going out of the house (shudder) but a boy's gotta do what a boy's gotta do. I even bought a pedometer; I must be serious.

Anyway, this is really a post about my friend, Crow. I've been feeding a family of four crows for several years. I toss out endless peanuts, pleasing not only Crow and his family, but the local squirrels. In any case, when I go for a walk the four crows follow me.

They fly overhead and call down to me, and alight on trees and houses near my path. The calls sound friendly, not like the usual "caw" you expect from a crow. And when I get back to my house, they fly into the tree that hangs overhead. To reward their faithfulness, I again toss out a bunch of peanuts and they hungrily gobble them up.

Today I wondered if Crow would do a Lassie if something happened to me. If I was lying on the ground motionless near the edge of the forest, would Crow fly back to my house and fetch my sister? Crows are awfully smart. Who knows?

Okay, okay. If Crow found me on the ground, he'd sit on my chin and peck out my eyes. Still, I just love Crow!

Friends in the yard

It's fun to walk around in my yard. Some of the creatures are too timid to be friendly, but I've definitely got a few pals out there. The entire flock of geese, about 75 or so at the moment, know me in the sense that they won't run from me. But only a few are actually pals. Remember the little one who followed me everywhere I went? I wrote about her last spring. She grew up, but never stopped that behavior. So I have a companion goose. It's fun. And of course, there's Milo, the finest goose who ever lived -- but I digress. This isn't a goose post. It's about squirrels.

There are five or six squirrels living on the property and I'm friendly with all of them. It's easy to make friends with a squirrel: just offer him a peanut. I do this all the time so the squirrels like and trust me. They'd never run away when they see me. But one thing they do intrigues me.

When I encounter one of them during a walk, he'll stop and stand on his hind legs, facing me. This position is maintained for about 30 seconds and then he continues on his way. This happens all the time. I swear they're telling me, "Thanks for the peanuts, big guy." I can see it in their stance: this is an expression of gratitude.

PS -- Squirrel facial expressions are complex and amazingly cute. I wish I could take a photo of my main squirrel friend but he's wary of cameras -- he's probably seen too many guns. We humans can be dangerous critters. Anyway, they're very cool. Anyone else made friends with a squirrel?

Never underestimate the allure of peanuts

I do believe the last squirrel is out of the attic. Hoorah! Since I mentioned my squirrel problem here the other day, I thought I'd report back.

Setting three bug bombs off in the attic was a waste of time (and somewhat evil, seen in retrospect). We thought we scared them out so we closed up all the holes. Dum-te-dum-tum. No go. The squirrels stayed up there throughout the whole thing. I find this shocking but that's what happened.

So then I had dog knows how many squirrels penned up in my attic, breathing horrible gas fumes. In other words, the situation was even worse. Luckily, a friend of my sister's lent me a squirrel trap. I put some peanuts, still in their shells, into the trap and left it on top of a duct (that looked fun to walk on, if you were a squirrel).

Worked like a charm. Within a matter of hours, I trapped four squirrels (one at a time) and let them loose outside. There were three babies and one adult and all seemed fine despite the bug bombs. Phew. I'm glad for that.

In all, it was so easy that I'm not worried about any future squirrel-tenants. I'll just lure them into the pain-free trap with the food of the gods: peanuts. Never underestimate the power of a peanut.