Happy Inauguration Week

 

Squirrels 1

Of all the pestering animals squirrels bother the weasel most. Squirrels could have an infinity, observationally, like eusocial humans and eusocial ants.

But ants are all the same critter and are too small to be consequential. They swarm, so what. Formication is a fun word for middle schoolers; everyone has felt it but how often does it really matter? Try eating an ant and it doesn’t even taste. Ant’s purpose is to aerate the whole ecological dirt seven times a year and perpetually search for drops of maple syrup left on the kitchen counter. That’s it. 

Squirrels are an urban concern of swirling groups. Individuals appear, then others may be repeats or replicas. Humans can resemble tessellations, to the weasel, squirrels are chaos theory.  

It’s obvious who they are talking to when they yell their birdy squall inside the forest. Totally reasonable, everybody deserves to communicate with whomever. The weasel believes squirrels don’t squawk as much in the city, which is insidious. They chase without pattern. What information do they pass when they interweb in the canopy? How to know how many are at the backdoor? Bursting into the rotunda? 

Pumpkin

Into Christmas, however Covid diminished, nobody wants uncarved whole orange pumpkins, but if the landlord doesn’t organize compost, what to do? Sneak and dump in the friendly neighbor’s shiny new green compost bin? Check. But the friendly neighbor is on alert and lifts it out. Heavy and still perfectly formed, a fine sidewalk wall ornament, bright in soggy winter. 

Then somebody has a nighttime harvest snack leaving pumpkin crumbs:

Once gnawed, the underside of decay rot shows and the remainder pumpkin is tossed back to compost with wet leaves. Glad that the nocturnal animal had the feast, the weasel wonders: 

Little events happen. Nightly scurries for a singular purpose kept secret to get the belly full. Is the calling owl a danger? Was the animal who ate the third of pumpkin owl-immune because of size? Is a common raccoon too big to be carried off? Is early January pumpkin satisfying, or just a starch hit easy to grab like a human stale plain donut? 

Robin

Robin the Calabash Nephew

Has issues that qualify him to attend a special school attuned to his needs (even during Covid). Robin’s mom has chosen to be elsewhere, so Robin and his sister live with their grandparents. Robin’s dad always cared. But you can’t have legal custody if you OD in the presence of your kid. 

This week, after he got out of jail, Robin’s dad died from drugs. Robin’s aunt went to Robin and told him about it. Robin decided to go to school next day, no matter what. Robin’s granddad said this: “You’re going to have talk to the horses. They’ll notice. You tell them that something bad happened, and you’re OK, but you’ll need their help.” And that’s what Robin did.

Too Much Trampling

This week was TV watching political weather. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup

 

"Spaced Out" a mask made by "Myriad Selves" in the late 1970s

Owl

The Silver Maple is a controversial tree. It’s one of the fastest growing maples and popular. The weasel sees them landscaping the areas between buildings all through the urban not-so-wild. Dense, shady three dimensional space worthy of an annual sustained crow fight over whose new nest will be placed near the top of the canopy. But it’s too fast growing to hold thick against stormy wind; its brittle branches break off. A big messy tree.

What color are most of the stars? White or silver? Matching them, the trunk and branches are silver with the smallest moonlight; brighter at the bottom in porch lights. From the weasel lowdown the view contrasts best in leafless winter. Clear dark winter sky, glimmery trunk arms, stars way above and on fortunate nights, persistent hooting. No need for integrated telemetry or GPS for the local owl to pick its acoustic perch. “Where are you” it hoots and hootles. Weasels love the awe of that wonder question: is this calling to a known friend or longing to know a new friend?

Dare to

 

Different Paws

On patrol by the Elwha River the weasel observed a dead animal whose claws signified bear. (Observation only, no food interest.) Thoughts of disparagement arose. 

Disparate treatment in circumstances when all should be treated equally is wrong. When one shakes hands with a whole heart then nobody should ever be bitten. When shaking, nails face away. The vulnerable pads touch. It's easy to be friendly!

 

Weasels are mischaracterized; it's lazy to say everyone in the group is the same. And it's always some general negative story!

For example: to claim all weasels perform war dances is to mess with the Friendly Weasel's self-identification. The Weasel is hop with the hip of Different Paws for Different Folks. Just click it: