I watch a lot of animal shows and I have seen a lot of strange things. One strange thing which I frequently see is animals that I never knew existed, like giant white rabbits on an island in Eastern Canada that run in herds.
There is a species of chimpanzees that live somewhere in South Asia that look like the missing link for human. They are eerily human-looking and they have sex in the missionary position usually, I have seen them once and I have read of them once, and in all my years of fascination with animals, those are the only two instances of even having heard of their existence. These strange, strange animals hiding from us in plain sight like a covey of purloined letters.
There is another species of chimpanzees that lives in South America that has a dominate male and only he gets to have sex with the females. Once in a while a strange male will come along and a female will actively seek the stranger out, take him to a hidden place and have sex with him. If the dominate male finds out, he doesn't do anything to the male, but he will beat the hell out of the female. Ain't that weird?
Once, watching a school of herrings, right across the middle of the screen swam a red herring. A real red herring. He went off to the left out of camera, then he came back from the left and swam out of camera to the right and I never saw him again. The narrator, who is supposed to keep us informed of what is going on, never mentioned the red herring. What good is he anyhow?
I saw a pack of wild African dogs biting a wildebeest calf, chasing him all over the place, the cow trying to protect her calf, but of course not able to do it. This went on for a few moments and then all the dogs stopped and just stood there looking around. The narrator said that the dogs got tired -- the calf "wore them out." What bullshit -- a calf wearing out a pack of dogs. Where do they get these guys anyhow? My explanation is that the dogs were playing with the calf and got tired of that. They just were not hungry.
I had a cat once that caught a mouse and let him go and I kept trying to get the cat to catch him again and the cat just wasn't interested.
A woman described how a tiger had caught her and she put her hand on his paw and begged him not to eat her and he didn't.
I once saw two red foxes nipping at the heels of our cows. The cows would turn around and butt at them and the foxes would get out of the way, run around and nip them again. Playing.
On the telly, I saw a hippo, a crocodile and a lion all eating off the same wildebeest carcass at the same time -- the hippo eating the contents of the wildebeest's stomach.
I saw a baby hippo walking across the backs of huge crocodiles, unaccompanied by any adult. Evidently the hippos had taught the crocs not to mess with the young.
I heard, on the telly again - I have never been to Africa or any other foreign country except once I went to Tijuana, of a pack of lions killing an elephant calf and the elephants waiting until the lions went on a hunt again and then going and killing all the lion cubs. Tit for tat I guess.
I once saw two pollywogs with their noses stuck seemingly out of the water -- as close to the shore as they could get. I was standing right over them. They never moved a hair -- if they had any hair, which they didn't, being amphibians and all. I puzzled over this because normally they would scatter as soon as you approached, Then I saw a water snake in the pool of water looking for his favorite food -- pollywogs. These two were hiding from him, trusting me more than the snake.
I once watched a water snake watching me for a period of time, then apparently deciding I was no threat, went into the water and brought out a fish and ate it in front of me.
My Middle son, Daryl, had a cat that was an excellent "mouser." She had a kitten and one day I noticed that every time the kitten came close to her, she would hiss and spit at him. I thought how strange that a cat would treat an offspring like that, especially when she had seemed so loving to him before.
Sitting on the back porch, I noticed while watching the kitten, that wherever he was, the mom would be close by. She followed him, keeping watch over him and he never knew it.
I saw the kitten with a live hummingbird which had been caught by the mom. He was too young to handle it and a few minutes later I saw him with a butterfly, also caught by the mom. Tell me they can't use logic.
*******************************
A LOVE STORY
I volunteered for hospice at one time. My job was to give respite to the caretaker of the patient. This one guy I had was in a coma and I was told that his wife had taken his favorite records to the hospital so he could listen to them, she read to him, she doted on him, even though he could not respond.
Their story was that they were married and he started treating her violently so she divorced him, but when she found out that he had a brain tumor and that was causing the violence in him, she went back to him and cared for him until he died.
*****************************
I hope these are all new stories, but like my oral stories, I forget sometimes which ones I have told before. Won't hurt you to read them again anyhow.
No comments:
Post a Comment