Wednesday

The Zebra's Dark Side




The black zebra...

Sometimes, a zebra is born with strange stripe patterns and large areas of black...even spots.

These photos illustrate some of the variety possible in the stripes or, in the top and bottom photo, spots of the zebra. Kind of amazing...

Saturday

When Dogs and Coyotes Cross


This is supposed to be a coyote pack.  But it's not.  It's a pack of coyote-dogs.

In Bouquet Canyon, where I grew up, we owned five acres in the National Forest (it wasn't forested, though; it was like desert - juniper and sagebrush). We were basically in the middle of nowhere. And we had dozens of cats.  Well, I should say a succession of dozens of cats. These cats were safe from harm around our house and our dogs but like most cats they were too... curious.  

So in the night they wandered up into the canyon hills behind us.

And in the night the coyotes were so hungry, that they wandered down from the canyon hills behind us.

Friday

That Creature Sitting Next to You



You swing onto the Portland train one morning, find a seat and sit down.  You look across the aisle, and there.  There is a wild dog of some sort staring back at you. 

Quite a shock.  

It looks very like a fox, or a coyote.  Maybe.... a wolf?  

You know that if it's a wolf, you better back away as quietly as possible, with your umbrella at the ready.  But if it's a fox or coyote, you can probably safely leave him alone.  

But how will you know what to do?