This past week we went out to visit our friends near Amboy, Illinois. The weather was perfect. That magical time of the year when the mosquitoes hadn’t made their presence known. The mosquitoes will come soon enough, like this weekend. But the one presence that was present was that it seemed all creation wanted to procreate.
Our friend's dog, Barney, is neutered, and wanted to mate with our dog, Capers, who is spayed. Even though everything was “closed for the season”, it seemed that nature would override any procreative roadblock man could create. Capers wasn’t interested in Barney and would snap at him with any attempt. Barney, not to be deterred, would sneak up and with all the bravado or Richard the III try to go “once more into the breach.” A good part of our afternoon was spent in keeping the two dogs apart, Barney forlorn with lovesickness, finally banished to a dog chain. Capers, waiting for the next ball to be thrown. Such is unrequited love.
Nature was still abounding with love even if the dogs were not allowed, and I mean a-bounding. I watched the delicate dance of two rabbits. They chased each other around and one of them would then spring high into the air in pure exuberance. It was something to behold and had they not been so far away, it would have made a wonderful film clip for the Mr. Marty Show. Never in my life had I seen such a dance before by rabbits. It seems if the rabbits dance in my neighborhood, it is more from dodging automobiles than making the moves. And out in the countryside, where it seems rabbits belong, it was nice to see them free to dance to their heart's content.
Two bald eagles came flying slowly by and made their way toward a nest. The area where we were was once a vast marshland, where bandits would hide and wait for the stage on its way to Chicago. The bandits would hole up in the acres of the vast marsh and live off the wildlife until the coast was clear. Both bandits and marsh were now gone. The latter, drained and put into a canal in order to create more farmland. So it was nice to see that wildlife made a return and again despite man’s best efforts persevered. Nesting bald eagles on the flatland of Illinois is a wonderful sight to see.
Here in the city, the goldfish pond has been wild with action. Fish pairing up and dancing as well, swirling around the pond and making beds among the reeds and hornwort. The excitement of the fish is so that occasionally one will clear the water with a loud slap. Pretty soon there will be a lot of goldfish fry swimming around. I am a bit worried with no bullfrogs around to help reduce the population. But nature apparently has her ways.
If a prize was to go to the horniest of all creatures, I’d have to award it to the sparrows. Sparrow males make no issue of their job. At our place, the sparrows have paired up, making homes under open roof eaves, laundry exhaust vents and the bird houses we have up on the property. The females are nonplussed with the task at hand. They sit on a perch and wait as the male comes back in again and again to mate. Each time, he makes a high-pitched chirping noise. I was amazed that the female would not try to rip his head off for that repeated chirping noise, but perhaps to her, it has all the romantic nuances of Barry White. One never knows in the animal kingdom.
And in time, all the hoopla will give way to new critters of all kinds. The odd young robin that bounces repeatedly into the window. Baby rabbits that innocently bound out onto sidewalks and gaze unfazed at a frenzied dog and its frantic owner. And that too, will go away, the innocence and the world will forget about that one pleasant stretch of time, when everything seemed to be in love, and there were no mosquitoes.
Like this post? Read Martin's other post here.