Monday, May 28, 2012

Finnegan Discovers Wild Bird Kingdom


 

     This morning I put Sir Finnegan (the puppy) on my desk top.  It has an L shaped expanse that looks out over the front yard.  Two different dove and squirrel proof feeders hang from a post and a tree.

I opened the window and lo and behold he discovered there are tiny red, yellow and brown finches flitting about.  He was mesmerized.  I put his big Martha Stewart Dog Bed on the desk, the one he generally ignores. This little man prefers to cool his jets on tile and pillowcases.  No Fu-Fu cushy things for him.

 He settled in and watched the activity.  A herd - or is it a quorum of quail? - entered the yard looking for falling leftovers.  Soon the doves came in and activity stepped up.  The birds in the neighborhood know that I’m sloppy feeder filler, without a great eye for detail and there will be dropped seed in the yard.

They flew in singing, chucking, cooing and beeping (the quail quorum) and flew out.  The little ones fed on the seed in the feeders; the big birds pecking along from the random remnants on the ground.  Soon, our yard lizard came out to join the fun and just sat there – he’s gotten pretty big and fat himself and doesn’t run like the little lizards.  He did some pushups and then just waited, for what I don’t know.

Finnegan can’t believe the bonanza of wild life right here in Tucson.  I had my husband get a table to put next to the desk, where Finnegan quickly settled into his armchair for viewing.  It’s a jungle out there and the best puppy show on earth.  Finnegan’s head and eyes were intent, swinging back and forth from the tiny flyers to the bigger Quail on the ground.  He sniffed the air; unsure what these things are.


After about 10 minutes, he poked his little black nose up to the screen and startled the birds.  The quail ran out in a panic beeping, but came back almost instantaneously.  The doves and finches flew off but came right back.  Finnegan sat unmoving after that – he sure didn’t want to disturb the potential food sources.  He didn’t bark– which amazed me.  The first time he saw my husband in a black ball cap, he barked.  He has barked at the rubber duck in the pool, when it dared to stare at him or drift off on the currents of the cleaning system.  He barks when he hears someone coming over – his tail wagging merrily all the time.

As I watched, his little mouth opened and closed in a rhythm.  He moved closer to the screen again…trying to see if he could eat whatever the things were prancing out of reach in the beyond.  He couldn’t but he enjoyed pretending he was catching prey.   

The outdoor movie bought me fifteen quite minutes this morning…before he saw a young girl walking across the street with two teensy toy dogs.  He barked at them, looked at me and barked again.  I took him down and he went running out of the room, I think he thought we were headed out the door to check out the interlopers. 

But, puppy that he is, he saw my husband’s man cave door open and took the opportunity to run in, walk on the treadmill…sniff around and inspect for available socks or shoes he could take.  The attention span is short, but that’s okay, he keeps it interesting for us.

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