bambi's puppy love
This photo graced our morning paper, with the following caption:
Dear lick: A mountain feist named Candy kisses Kelsey, a fawn born to a deer kept by a family in Durango, Iowa.
The mountain feist is a member of the extended yet still rare family of pre-Revolutionary War "cur" or hounding dogs of which Bryn is a member. Bryn's breed -- the Catahoula Leopard Hound -- is also known as the Catahoula Cur, and is traced back to the brindled hunting and herding dogs who landed in the 1400s and 1500s with Nordic and Spanish explorers. The Feist breed pictured above is mentioned historically by George Washington and others, including Lincoln. Curs were vital to pioneer families, hunting wild boar and other game, herding domestic stock, and protecting the family. Puppies were a prized gift, often carried in baskets or in the arms of children as pioneers headed west from the east coast and the thirteen original colonies.
Bryn has seen a couple of deer. Sometimes from the car on a country road, twice out hiking.
In the wild, she grew preternaturally still, sniffed the air, focused and "pointed."
The first time we grabbed her collar and the deer crashed off into the brush.
The second time we all just waited, deer and dog looking at each other. We went our way, Bambi went his.
Cattle, Bryn herds.
Horses, she shares space with, staying out of kicking range.
Dogs, she plays with or fights.
Gophers and squirrels, she hunts.
Deer, she observes.
Us, she protects, particularly when children are with us.
Sociologists of all stripes posit that sentient beings carry ancestral memories in our genes. Watching Bryn react to different mammals, I can believe it.
Now if I can just figure out the whole dragon thing.
posted by Woman In Love @ 7:18 AM
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