Wednesday, January 26, 2022

After the splash

 After the splash, a squirrel scrambled out of the creek and up a 6-foot wall, concrete sculpted to look like the stone of an old Spanish fort. The squirrel was soaking wet after his dip in Zarzamora Creek.

I have spent some time in nature. But I’d never seen that.

I don’t know whether the squirrel dived or fell. I have seen squirrels miss a limb high in a tree and fall to the ground. That’s a tricky philosophical issue: Did that squirrel make a mistake? We’re quick to get into the minds of other species without really knowing much about what kinds of minds they have.

I saw the splash, but not what went before. I was expecting to see a kingfisher rise from the water. I was not expecting the squirrel.

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