Grazing and Gazing

They say I used to be a fence runner.

I'd run the chain link fence and bark like a maniac

at the dogs on the other side.

The only time I bark now is when I'm playing.

It's a bark of absolute crazy happiness.

I'm ordinarily a pretty mellow sort of guy.

I've got a great view off my deck

and I love to stand out there and look over the field

and down at the pond

and up the hill across the way.

My head fits  perfectly between the rails of the deck.

I think they designed it just for me.

There are almost always geese to watch.

Year round.

I love to provoke them and chase flocks of them away.

It's probably not the right thing to do, but it's fun.

And rabbits.

There are hundreds of them.

So many I pretty much ignore them most of the time.

More often than you'd think

bigger four leggededs hang out in my "backyard."

There are lots of deer. Mule deer, they're called.

Those guys have huge ears.

They are basically tame.

And they eat our plants and flowers.

There are also even BIGGER four leggededs.

And I love to watch 'em.

Elk.

Huge elk.

Bull elk and their cows.

And they consider the neighborhood their domain.

They take up residence and hang out for weeks at a time.

This picture was taken right off our deck.

So was this.

Mom agreed to take me outside on this particular day.

That fella was taking a break between the houses.

I let him.

And I watched.

At a reasonable distance.

I'm not stupid.

I know they are bigger than me.

Usually there are at least three of them together.

This day there were three bull elk.

I looked to the north.

I looked to the south.

And I spotted another right off of our walk-out basement patio.

I sat inside and watched him for hours.

Mostly silently.

Sometimes barking

in an effort to get him to talk to me.

(They do talk sometimes, but just to each other.

It's called bugling.

They have other things on their mind when they bugle.

They could give a rip about a wire hair fox terrier audience.)

But I'm happy gazing.

I can do it for hours.