October 16, 2009

October 16, 2009

The northwest Tucson suburb where we live looks like any other American town. It has all the requisite chains of stores, restaurants, and gas stations. In between the houses and commercial establishments are small patches of undeveloped, unpaved land. In Chicago and St. Louis these spots would be filled with large trees and thick brush. Here these patches seem barren, with maybe a few stunted trees and low-lying cacti scattered about. Except for a few noisy quail, it looks like nothing lives in these arid plots. Oh, how we have learned that is not the case. They are full of unseen wildlife. And for some reason the desert scraps of land are much wilder and unforgiving than their deer-infested Midwestern counterparts.

I was reminded of that as I cut thru the ten yards of desert separating our apartment from the town hall. Another pedestrian alerted me to a mother bobcat and three kittens. While three of the quartet escaped the heat in the shade provided by a masonry wall, the last kitten basked in the sun atop the wall. I could see her eying the birds gathered at an apartment feeder just feet away. Earlier this Spring we saw a roadrunner outside our window hop its way up a tree and snatch a baby bird from its nest. Two Thanksgivings ago we watched a hawk swoop from our neighbor’s roof and snag a small snake in the desert below. Almost nightly we hear coyotes howling, announcing to their pack a fresh kill. So I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised when we talked to our new next-door neighbor. Her menagerie includes a cat, a dog and several birds. She told us how yesterday evening, an owl swooped onto her patio and snatched away her cat. Fortunately the overfed cat was a little too heavy and was soon dropped and rescued. The Arizona lesson is you had better watch your pets closely around here…. even on the second floor!