fauna

Some of the animals in Mexico are quite familiar, for example, our condo compound has a cat named Sherlock. He is an employee in charge of rodent control for the complex. I also wondered if he was a management spy. Whenever you leave the door open Sherlock comes in and looks around. Once he came in and sat down in front of the refrigerator and looked at me meaningfully. I offered him little pieces of bread, meat and cheese all of which he sniffed but did not eat. (Of course Dan came out and started yelling at me, "DO NOT FEED THAT CAT!!") I am still unsure if my offerings were not up to Sherlock's standard or if he was just doing an inventory that day to see what was in everybody's fridge. Yesterday I asked Sherlock if I could take his picture. He immediately sat down and started licking himself in unmentionable locations. I don't know if he was just being rude or if he wanted to look his best in what he considered his most important parts.

But we also see unfamiliar animals. The most excitement recently was a three and half foot iguanain the swimming pool. I thought he just wanted to cool off. The way I figured it, if he wanted to cool off it was fine with me as long as I was not in the pool at the time, in which case I would have probably felt differently. Our neighbors were worried that the chlorine might be bad for him and fished him out with the pole used to get leaves, etc from the pool. I am not sure if the pole was designed to accommodate iguanas but evidently it worked. Luis said that the iguana went in the pool to get away from Sherlock who chases them. I asked Luis if Sherlock (the cat) could actually kill an iguana which is after all bigger than he is. Luis said that Sherlock probably could if he wanted to but he really just enjoys chasing them. Evidently there used to be a couple of iguanas that lived in the compound. Luis said that people liked to look at them but then they would poop on people who walked under the trees which was not a good thing. Well, No!!

There are many weed filled vacant lots in Bucerias. People who own horses and donkeys stake them out for a day to browse. The animals escape quite regularly. Every morning about seven we are awakened by the noisy protests of a little donkey who our neighbors christened Eyeore. Eyeore must not like to be left in the lot next door. Several times he escaped. I tried to shoo him back to his place but he eluded me quite deftly. One day we saw two lady tourists leading Eyeore down the street. I asked them what was up and they explained that they thought he was sad just standing there all day. They asked his owner, and had gotten permission to take him for a walk. The ladies were going to take him down to the market and buy him carrots for a treat. I would guess that gringos are a strange species to the Mexican farmers.

Speaking of which, one day the horse who was staked out down the street escaped. Someone caught her and put another rope on her. I was trying to be helpful and tell the Mexican where the horse came from. “Do you know where she goes?” I was asked. I said I did and before I could protest I had the rope in my hand and was told to take her back. “BE CAREFUL THAT HORSE DOESN’T KICK YOU!!” Dan yelled from a safe distance. I told him that as long as I was in front there was little danger of that. However I did keep a sharp eyeover my shoulder in case the horse decided to nip my rear (I had a rather nasty experience on a previous occasion!). However this horse was very well behaved and when I made a couple of clucks followed me placidly back to the lot and let me tie her to a stake.

One of the families in Bucerias has a coatimundi as apet. The children walk it on a leash and it seems quite docile. However, both the dogs and the cats slink away when they see it coming. It seems to eat insects.

There are a lot of different birds here both familiar and unfamiliar which you can see at:

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/dxterrible/album/576460762387884488.

So long for now from Mexico where the free range chickens range free.

Rebecca and Dan