The Wild Things: Coyotes on the Creek

Dear Readers,

Last week I responded by email to a phone message from my neighbor concerning prolonged, suspicious, loud, non-human noises emanating from the creek that runs in back of our houses. I inquired from some other neighbors if they knew about the coyotes. One said, "Well, of course! Are you talking about the one who accompanies me and my dog on our walks?" Another said, "Oh yes, we've always had a coyote lurking about." 

There are two schools of thought concerning this strange species of dog whose natural habitat is Dallas, Ft. Worth and their sprawling suburbs. (& yes, he thrives just about everywhere else in Texas!)  The majority of upstanding citizens would like to eradicate them wherever & whenever because one never knows for sure when or what he will attack. The minority is more laid-back, thinking that it's virtually impossible to get rid of them, & that furthermore they are part of the eco-system.

I don't know what will happen to the Freds, but I do know that even if animal control finds and kills them, others will come along to replace them soon enough. The coyote is hardly an endangered species. 

Dear Ks,

I'm sorry I didn't make it over to talk to you about the fracas about a week ago. Yes, it was very close to my section of the creek. It indeed woke me up, but Ol' JJ slept right through it & only awoke after I shook him vigorously. He said, "All I hear is a dog barking. Why did you wake me up?" & it was true. The ado had awakened a sleeping dog on the other side of the creek. But, it was truly an amazing listening experience of the ways of wild things, n'est-ce pas? 

We have known for some time now that Mr. Fred, as Ol' JJ calls him, was prowling around. But, we also know that there is a bobcat, too, though OTHERS have sighted him & we haven't. But Fred makes RARE appearances as he saunters carelessly along the back of our cyclone fence. Once we watched him from our sliding glass doors as "he," or a healthy "she" sallied into the back yard. Thinking better of it, Fred/Fredna waltzed right out again without a care in the world. Ol' JJ spoke to a man who lives near our mutual artist-friend on the other side of the creek on his evening walk. This distant neighbor believes that we have a small family of Freds. 

As you know, we have probably had a coyote or two at any given moment of our residence backed up to the creek. They are always in fine health and I believe their pelts would fetch a pretty penny in another environment...or at least that's what we read in Wikipedia. Now we have another view of this creature than most: We think we ought to let him be! He/She does a find job of keeping our creek clean of riff-raff. What's that? Too many squirrels, opossums (way too many of those!) & those pesky racoons. All of these are big FAT animals that need to be controlled. Fred really doesn't care about our dogs, cats, or children. (Has there EVER been a story of him attacking these precious family members?) There is no end of good fresh game in his territory, & the hunt is what he's made for. Too bad if some "ears" caught the family at work the other night. Someone might call animal control to root them out.

About 10 years ago now, I read a wonderful novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. B.K. really did a lot of research on the coyote and structured a novel around the protagonist (a woman scientific naturalist) who was in favor of protecting them and the antagonist (a rought-tough guy sheep herder from Wyoming) who wanted to "get em." I guess we should make sure that they don't over-populate, but from what I understand the nature of predators is to kill off OTHERS of their species when there is an encroachment on territory. 

We moved to this house to be on the creek and enjoy NATURE. We already knew from tales we'd heard that there were all manner of critters. & Oh! the birds!!!  (Katie, I'm jealous you have all the Goldfinches, I'm sure!) We even knew of one family that moved to sanitized Coppell so that it could escape the Wild Things! I just wanted to tell you these things because you are our wonderful neighbors & I like to keep the channels of communication wide open. We cannot expect to see eye to eye on all things, but I think the overall harmony in our corner is remarkable. 

We certainly WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY AND FIN DE SAISON with Alissa, relations, and friends.

As always,

Joanna

Revisiting "A Christmas Carol" in the 21st Century

I recently received this email from #1 who lives & works in Moscow. He frequently travels to Germany, France, Britain. 

Dear Mother,

Let’s revisit "A Christmas Carol," shall we????

A person most ambivalent and ambiguous will open the Christmas conversation, to kill time between meetings and business discussions, or during a boring train ride in Germany. Germans know so well how best to kill time and remain perfectly subdued and à propos. The monotony of life which they themselves created bears the consequences to moan, mope and complain. Such is their linear and yet predicable life; alas, it is indeed, in a Kantian way, hence they will ask: “So, what were you doing at Christmas Time? 

Dare they ask this russified Franco-American citizen? He is still estranged to the perfectly organised and synchronised Teutonic background that momentarily surrounds him. Yet through some miracle of memory cells, he is still capable, despite a decade of intense brainwashing in Soviet lands, to express himself in high German. 

“Well…there was not much too eat…; that is to say; I was on a diet imposed by a demanding Russian swimming aerobics  trainer....so eager was he to tone my belly down. Then there was not much sleep because of a business submission deadline,...a synonym for clients’ endless barking at work... that would need to be completed before the New Year. Then, those much despised Jingle Bells Christmas computer viruses that haunt your PC to Kingdom Come. I could not count on sleep to recuperate some of my faculties. Anyway, there was not much to see with my tired eyes because the sky in Moscow, even under the brilliant strides of politically correct Putinia, is dark and murky from 4:00 p.m. to 10:30 a. m. And then, unlike the Coca Cola jingle of the early '80’s which hoped for a world in perfect harmony if only one drank Coke, there is not much to hope for because of complex global macro-economics....So, what’s left?—Was bleibt übrig?... 

Well, the consolation prize, after much practice in poorly lit neon rooms with no ventilation and the smell of rancid armpits, lousy acoustics, and an impossibly moody choir director it is.....Handel's Messiah! From such modest elements the meaning of life springs from divine singing & great hope for the future in biblical terms, in a world where most of the ‘old’ continent has forgotten the meaning of God and Christianity altogether. The feeling of believing is so intense, so earnest, so as not to perish.

There is much friendship and love from fellow human beings of so many different social milieus, choir-mates, male or female, forgotten Russian souls, who just have a voice (the whos in Norton hears a who?), a glimmer of hope outside the routine box, but not much more. There are rents to pay, kids to feed, and uncertainty at the workplace. Is it another model of Dicken's Christmas Carol, just in the 21st century? Notes and lyrics date from a time when electricity, typewriters, and email were still  undiscovered! A mesmerizing time when people still believed in the beauty of Divine Creation…Yes, this must have been many years ago….(sigh!).

Well, then there was the Performance….and that was the best Christmas present ever!!! Singing with a choir of so many wonderful, motivated, talented singers from the most modest of Russian profiles. No, there was no time to dress up right for another business cocktail party. These people got up, as I did, after countless rehearsals in dimly-lit, putrid smelling rehearsal rooms, and at the crack of dawn they smartened up, white tops & black bottoms, to sing Handel’s illustrious masterpiece. It was a hit and the singers especially felt it.

Take it easy. No, this was not on WRR with Robin Matthews and some warped CD. This was real….in Moscow, in one of the many concert halls, with a live baroque orchestra, who, like the singers, rubbed a lot of elbow grease to pull the performance together.

Sit back and enjoy the few excerpts Katrina was able to take with her i-phone, as a witness to the scene. 

Merrry Christmas…..from the Moscow Grinch….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyAFEO1Pj9c&feature=youtu.be