Wild Day

Yesterday afternoon I heard my neighbor's three little dogs barking and barking and barking. They just kept barking so I went outside to see what was going on. Through the six-foot chainlink fence I saw them staring at the pond, legs solidly planted on the earth, barking, but I couldn't see what they were fussing at because of thick foliage. I took a few steps in a northerly direction and peered through chinks in the wood fence.

A raccoon. In broad daylight. It was trying to get out the pond while surrounded by three barking Havanese dogs who weren't giving an inch. I shouted at the dogs to back away, which they didn't, but by me saying something to them it gave them pause and this presented the raccoon with some leeway to scramble over the side of the slate rock pond. About this time, the dogs owners came out to see what all the commotion was about. They managed to pry the females away but the male stayed where he was, barking at the huge raccoon who apparently was injured. When it tried to escape towards me and the wood fence, it dragged its right rear leg which was besieged by huge horseflies. My neighbors grabbed their male dog and the woman put him in the house with the females while the raccoon continued to try to escape, but I could tell it was in pain from its injury and from the flies biting it unmercifully. The poor thing would take a few steps, then lay down with its head to one side like it just couldn't go on, but go on it did. At one point it became stuck between stalks of closely jambed bamboo stalks. It opened its mouth in a silent scream and then lay down, tired, with its head to one side. My neighbor talked about shooting it to put it out of its misery...but thankfully that didn't happen. He eventually returned to his house and a few minutes later I could no longer see the raccoon through the chinks in the fencing; it had escaped. I worried about it all evening, alone out there in suburbia, wounded and exhausted, followed, no doubt, by those horrendous flies.

Then about 12:30am, as I was getting ready for bed, I heard a loud flapping noise at the window in the front bedroom. I couldn't see anything until I retrieved my flashlight. There, on the window a/c unit, was a juvenile bird, a cardinal perhaps because there was a reddish tint to its tail. It kept banging into the window, flapping its wings. So I decided that I should rescue it. I went outside with my flashlight, a towel and a bowl of water (in case I chose to leave it on the a/c unit, at least it would have water). When I reached the a/c unit, I placed the bowl on the top and reached for the bird. Well, it flew up into the bushes behind me and then up to the eaves, and then - I don't know what happened - it fell to the ground and my cat Blackjack was upon it within milliseconds. I didn't know he had followed me - a black cat in the dead of night on the unlit side of the house. I chased that darn cat back and forth in that big yard, hunting him with my flashlight. At one point, I found him under a bush, the baby bird still alive and still in his mouth. I'll never forget this: the little bird looked me right in the eyes and opened its beak in a silent Help Me cry...and then off went Blackjack, furiously fast and extremely silent. The next time I found Blackjack - under another bush - the little bird was dead.

And then to make a sad tale even sadder, a male cardinal I call Chirpadee woke me up at 5:30am calling and calling and calling from near the same spot where I first found the juvenile bird. I have to wonder if that little bird was his baby. It was almost full-grown, almost able to fly fully on its own.

Life sure can be cruel. I don't like that. Yeah, I know no one said life would be fair and that bad things happen to good people (and animals), but I still don't like it.