Last weekend my friend Jana came over with her son, Dez, just to hang out and take shots of our newly hatched turkeys. (Yes, it’s that time of year again.)
We walked all around the yard, but most of the interesting animal life had taken cover from the heat. Jana noticed a hollow branch on an apple tree, and because photographers are naturally curious she took a peek inside the hole.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” She jumped back several yards.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I joined in, partly so she wouldn’t look so silly in front of her son and my daughter (wink, wink) and partly to scare off whatever horrid creature had to be inside that tree.
“There’s something in there.” Jana pointed a shaky finger at the gnarled trunk, holding hand to chest and trying to catch her breath.
I ran to the tree ahead of the kids, pushing Em out of the way as she tried to beat me to it. Thankfully, I was the only person besides Jana tall enough to look into the hole. With my body poised to flee at a moment’s notice, I slowly leaned in to peek inside the hole. This is what I saw:
Launched a thousand screams, mouse in a hollow tree trunk, June 2008, photo (taken with Jana’s camera) © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
“Aw, it’s a teeny little mouse,” I said. The poor thing was quivering.
I picked up the kids and let each peer in. Then the work of trying to take photos began, and that’s when a new round of screaming took place, led by Jana.
In the end, we didn’t get a lot of photos and what we did get weren’t very good, but Jana and I laughed like crazy. You can know someone for a while before you discover certain shared quirks. It was fun to find out that we are both screamers.
One other thing about last weekend. We have a bizarre cat statue that came with the place when we bought it. Jim hides it around the yard, the way Trader Joe’s hides that coconut doll with the grass skirt in the shelves so that kids can find it and win a prize. (If you don’t have kids and don’t shop at Trader Joe’s, you’re missing out.)
Anyway, Sony the pug found the cat, and, well, you know what Sony does when she finds things. Luckily, we rescued the cat; it presently resides in all its mangled glory on a tree trunk by our new flower garden.
Jana was immediately drawn to the cat, and it turned out to make a darned cool-looking photo.
The moral of that story is, Wake up! Bizarre mangled cats can make for interesting pics. They might even elicit a shriek from the screamers among you.
Untitled, cat statue at ybonesy’s place, photo © 2008 by
blueskydesert. All rights reserved.
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