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Travelin’ Dog (Repost)

[ Another repost, from 2003. ]

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chardy

Some stories touch you even when they have no clear ending.

I was recently on a week’s vacation to California. I got to see a lot of people and visited a number of places I’ve loved—old good places where I sojourned for a while with dear friends. Sadly, I also said a number of goodbyes. One was to my good buddy Chardonnay, who happens to be a Golden Retriever currently engaged in dying.

Chardy used to come for runs with me and my constant canine companions Ranger the Valiant Warrior and Tito the Mighty Hunter. We romped through the marrow of the world together, carousing along clear streams and across pristine meadows, digging for wily ground squirrels and surprising skittish shore birds. Chardy loved the water more than anything, spending a good bit of his time there and regarding the rest of us as if we were a bit daft for not jumping in with him. Continue reading “Travelin’ Dog (Repost)”

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When Coyotes Danced (Repost)

[ This weekend I’m transcribing masses of audiofile notes for future posts on Beta Culture, as well as working on some book-y stuff — I have a book in the works, working title “BraynDrops, the Freethought Bathroom Companion” — but unfortunately neglecting things here. I swear I’ll be back soon with some new stuff. Meanwhile, here’s a repost of a piece from Sept. 15, 2011. ]

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It was hot, the day the coyotes danced.

It was about 1990, and I was ranch-sitting for a friend in Bishop, California. The owner was up in the mountains all summer, but there were cattle at the ranch, and somebody needed to be there to look after them.

In this particular case, ranch-sitting was a minimalist job. The cattle were out in a pasture with plenty of water and grass, and cattle don’t need much more than that. Really, all I had to do was walk the pastures once a day and make sure nobody was sick or injured or dead.

The east side of the Sierra Nevada range is mostly “high desert” — not the rolling dunes of sand most people think of when they hear “desert,” but just really dry sagebrush country. The well-watered ranch, by contrast, was an oasis of shade trees and green grass, especially beautiful to someone like me who’d grown up in wet, green country. Continue reading “When Coyotes Danced (Repost)”

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Tito the Mighty Hunter: Good Dead Things

tito-truck.jpg

Thinking about dogs tonight, so I’m reposting this bit from 2008:

In most dog-related things, I was a fairly indulgent dad. But having my four-leggers roll in dead stuff, or go off into the brush and bring back something rotten, I had a hard time with that.

Tito was especially bad about it.

One summer day we were out along Varmint Creek hiking. I have this thing I sometimes do – I think of it as my super power – I hike and read at the same time. The subconscious Guardian Idiot that resides in all our heads, in my case has terrific peripheral vision, and I’m able to read and navigate along a trail, even rough mountain terrain, at the same time. I never fall down, I never walk into trees, I never even stumble. Continue reading “Tito the Mighty Hunter: Good Dead Things”

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60th Birthday Whale Watching Tour a Success!

I done seen whales!

But you don’t get to see them unless you click below the fold. The pictures are so awesome, so breathtaking, that I fear you will be awed and breath-taked to the point that you’ll pass out and fall onto a smaller, less massive bystander — possibly a child or a dog.

Meanwhile, content yourself with this picture of an extremely rare bird known as a “sea gull.” (Click to embiggen.) Continue reading “60th Birthday Whale Watching Tour a Success!”

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“Your Ass Is Mine!” Say Relentless Brick Snakes

You don’t have a hope in hell of escape.

Barricade yourself behind thick walls in brick buildings, the snakes will find you. They will get to you. They will show you no mercy. While you sleep, their patient, unceasing pursuit of your tender flesh will go on.

This is what you have bought, sacrilegious faithless humans! Upsetting God’s natural order, risking His Awesome Wrath, you have driven the rapid evolution of deadly Geometric Brick Snakes! Continue reading ““Your Ass Is Mine!” Say Relentless Brick Snakes”

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You Sleigh Me

In fond memory of cooler days, here’s a pic from back when I drove sleighs and haywagons for a living.

That’s me on the driver’s seat. Up front are my coal black Percheron draft horses, Esther and Jim, both close to a ton in weight. Running alongside is my German shepherd best friend, Ranger the Valiant Warrior.

This was the early 1990s, and I was already happily godless.

 

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St. Valentine and Darwin: A Tale of Two Carls

Carl Buell, Carl Zimmer. Do you know the names? Buell is the renowned natural history illustrator, Zimmer is the well-known science writer.

Buell’s name just popped up all over the world in relation to Darwin Day, Zimmer’s makes a splash this week on the cover of Time Magazine.

I hope Darwin enthusiast Colin Purrington will forgive me for quoting pretty much an entire page on his website, but he explains the Buell-Darwin connection so well I just couldn’t do it better:  Continue reading “St. Valentine and Darwin: A Tale of Two Carls”

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Best Use of the Phrase “Mouth-to-Snout”

Kudos to Wausau, Wisconsin firefighter Jamie Giese and teammates on the Wausau Fire Department, for saving the life of 7-year old Labrador retriever Koda.

After rescuing the unconscious dog from a burning house, Giese gave Koda “mouth-to-snout” resuscitation.

I’ve heard it argued more than once that there’s something shameful or unnatural in valuing an animal in the same way we value our fellow humans. I like to think that view is somewhat less popular than it once was, but I have no doubt it’s still out there. The accusation is that some of us love animals MORE than we love humans, or even that we love animals because we actually hate humans. Continue reading “Best Use of the Phrase “Mouth-to-Snout””