reply to post by Raxoxane
Where should I start?
--A few years ago, I was sitting in this exact spot at the computer. There is a large window behind it that looks out into my back yard. I saw
movement just beyond it and looked out, and there was a golden eagle on the ground, about six feet from me, just scanning the yard. Relaxed and
casual. I watched him for a few moments, and after a few, various (generally more colorful) incarnations of "Wow, that's a really big bird!" I
thought to myself... "I wonder if he even knows that I am here?" and just as that thought had finished, he whipped his head around like lightning
(suddenly not casual anymore) and made eye contact with me. We stared at each other through the window for 20 maybe 25 seconds and then he flew off
toward the west. It was a brief encounter but very intense.
--17 years ago we had gone camping at a local spot, at a lake in the mountains. I knew it very well, and I still love it up there. We were on the
lake paddling in a little rubber raft, when I spotted movement in the trees just off shore. There was a black bear. She stopped, turned and peered
at us, and came down to the waters edge and peered at us some more. Sniffing and sniffing. She seemed to be trying to figure out what in the heck
the yellow thing in the lake was. And then, darned if she didn't just wade in and start swimming toward us. She got just a few feet away... less
than a yard. If I had been very silly I could have leaned out and touched her. Again, we made eye contact, just a few scant seconds, and apparently
curiosity satisfied, she turned and paddled back in, lumbered out of the water, shook herself like a dog and went on with whatever she was doing. It
was pretty clear at the end of that encounter whose house we were in.
--One morning (very,early I might add) about 8 years ago, my husband shook me awake...
"Is there something we need to talk about?" he asked me.
"Whaa...?" I said.
"Is there something we need to talk about?"
The look on my face must of been something, because he took pity on me about then and said... "There are two horses in the yard." and sure enough,
there were two geldings in the yard, talking to my little chestnut peruvian paso filly over the fence.
The younger was a big bay, of indeterminate breeding, and the other older one was a golden, flaxen maned sorrel quarter horse. They were a bit busted
up, like they had gone through a fence, and thin. The sorrel walked up and shoved his nose in the halter, and the bay followed him. I put them in
the pasture next to my filly. Well, after some wrangling with the sheriff, and the brand inspector, and my nosy neighbor who thought I was
horse-thievin ( I had already called the brand inspector when she called the cops), we found the owner.
He had fallen on hard times and wanted to know if we would care for them. The bay, the owner said they couldn't get to take a rider, but he packed
well. Undeterred my friend (a.k.a the afore mentioned nosy neighbor become friend) worked with him and he came out alright. I rode him alot and he
liked to run, and jump. The sorrel, (who we named Whiskey) latched onto my daughter and became her baby sitter and therapist.
She is on the autistic spectrum and was not verbal at that time. We went everywhere on that horse, the two of us double, or me leading him. Every
time we turned for home she would melt down... Just screaming bloody murder, and that horse would just turn an ear toward her and keep plodding on,
steady as a rock. Sometimes when I was leading them, I would get a good, solid nose bump on my shoulder, I would turn, and every single time that
horse bumped me that kid was side ways on his back. We eventually bought Whiskey, and he was a god-send for our daughter.
I got a call one day, that she had missed the bus to come home from school. I got in my car, and shoot... It wouldn't start. I was getting a
little frantic then, and my eye landed on Mr. Whiskey looking over the fence. It was a few miles to the school but mostly rural on the way... So...
saddled up and off we went. He was fat, but knew I was in a hurry. He was a trooper. We sure walked back home though.
I have lots of stories about that horse, and other horses, and cats, and foxes, and crows...