SNIPE HUNTING?

It's funny how a picture is worth a thousand thoughts. Well, I'm not that wordy. But when I spotted this photo from Traverse City, Michigan, I fell for it. The black squirrel, I mean. I'd never heard of or seen a Michigan Black Squirrel. Maybe they don't exist, but I like to think they do.

So what about all these thoughts?

Well, one is that I had never seen a black stork. But in South Africa we saw plenty.

No thoughts, gentle reader(s), not even one about, well, of course, they would have black storks there because Africa is 80% Black, and naturally a black stork would bring Black babies.

Because that spawned my second thought. Do you think animals care what color another animal is? I mean, we sure do. Here, I use a collective we, because some of us have long gotten over the issue of color and gender. Why in the world do we still make a big deal out of it? Ethnicity, even hair color--I'm so tired of blonde jokes. Maybe they have it better in the animal kingdom.

My third thought was about snipes. In my days, in my hometown, the running line to get a girl in the car with you was to ask her if she wanted to hunt for snipe, which only are visible at night. In the country. Where one would park his car on a secluded road and wait for the snipe to appear. I know it sounds old fashioned and corny, but I guess it worked for some Southern Illinois guys. I think there is such an animal as a snipe, but I don't know. When I finish this entry I'll have to google black Michigan squirrel and snipe and see what I get.

So maybe three doesn't equal 1,000. But how about this: yesterday when I picked up palm bark from the yard from a previous night's storm, my eyes started itching like when I'm around a cat? Go figure.