predator or prey

(If you don't like sad animal stories, best to look at the pictures today and skip the story.

The flowers are to honor a very special dog.)

Although I planned to put up the next blog about the creek where I hike, something happened that changed my mind. Our nearby neighbor came over to ask if we had heard anything this afternoon. We had not. I asked, what happened? And she told us between 1 and 2 PM, something had killed their much loved dog, Cookie-- it was javelina.

For anyone who hasn't lived on the desert, they would not imagine javelina could be deadly to a dog. In Oregon, not on this computer, I have some pictures of them around this house. The link more or less describes what they are for anyone who hasn't heard of them.

Although javelina look like small, wild boars, they are actually 40 to 90 pound rodents-- according to biology. They have tusks and bodies that look like pigs, and those tusks can be quite dangerous. When I see them here, I do take pictures but from a safe distance as I had been told they can rip a person's leg open.

Cookie had been badly injured in an attack a few years ago; but after a high veterinary bill, her family was able to get her healed. This time it's hard to say exactly what happened. Tracks and signs of the battle told the general story. The shocking part is they had actually chased her up onto her own porch to finish her off. We kind of expect that with animals we think of as predators but not ones we think of as prey, but javelina are both.

The shock is, as it always is with sudden death, how fast it happened. The neighbors had been in and out, we were outside replanting flowers. Whenever the attack happened, it was in a span of no more than an hour, and my husband said, from the signs, she was fatally injured very quickly in the fight.

I like dogs and very much liked Cookie. Off and on I have stayed down here alone to write, paint or hike. Cookie startled/scared me a few times by coming over and barking at me for putting my own clothes out on the line. She had decided our yard was also hers to patrol. Dogs are very loyal, and they do their duty even when it costs them their lives.

As long as I am writing a sad blog, and right now I could write nothing else, there was another sad event when we got here although not on the level of Cookie's loss. A packrat had gnawed a hole in the door to the small shed where we store pool chemicals and birdseed blocks. When we arrived here, we saw much of what had been in the room had been torn apart for bedding materials, as well as dragging in prickly pear cactus bits, any kind of food that could be carried. The same neighbors who today lost their dog had put a water trap in there a few weeks ago, drowning the male packrat. My husband, in cleaning out the damage, startled the female; and as you can see from the pictures, she quickly gathered up her young to get them to a safer location.

We will be putting something metal on the bottom of the door to prevent this from happening again, but I felt sad for her having to find a new home. But with my sadness, I again have to face the duality of life. Too many rodents can bring disease into an area. We sometimes have to poison these cute little creatures to keep their numbers down. We don't like to be predators either-- but sometimes we are..

You would think, given that I see loss of life a fair amount with owning livestock, that I'd be hardened to such losses, but I never am. We share this little piece of land with many creatures, snakes, tarantulas, bunnies, quail, many varieties of birds, coyotes, bobcats, javelina, once in awhile even a cougar or bear wanders down out of the nearby mountains. Mostly we live harmoniously, but not always...

Spider woman is the name of this sculpture. She is one of mine and earned her title by one of the times I was cleaning out the little pool. I lifted her up to move her and under her was a tarantula that left in a huff. I put the sculpture back where it had been and apologized. Spider Woman is also part of Navajo mythology.

(All photos from today and this little piece of desert.)