Friday, October 12, 2012

Seen On My Run - The Blog Post

Most runners who are on The Twitters know about the #seenonmyrun hashtag.  Lots of gorgeous sunrise, sunset, and water snaps.  Tons of "WTH" snaps.
I, of course, favor the latter but also relish the former.
Today I slept in a touch longer than I usually do on Fridays before heading out with Zooey.  It was nice to get an extra few minutes of sleep.
Apparently, that fifteen or so minutes (plus the extra minutes it took me to get out the door; it was a "move slower" kind of morning) makes a big difference in the interesting things that you'll get to see on a run along an Arizona canal.
Seen today:

  1. Lightning storm up in the clouds (thanks for the awesome show, Mother Nature!)
  2. Two tiny kittens (spooked by The Hound of the Doofervilles)
  3. Dude wearing FULL ON winter workout gear - long pants (obviously lined) and winter jacket with fleece collar (probably fleece-lined, too) -- yes, it was in the 60s when I ran, which is practically a cold snap here, but I still think people in Arizona are weird when it comes to weather "anomalies" like getting below 70° in the first half of October.  You should see what happens when there is the rare foggy morning.  But I digress.
  4. A "pack" (or whatever it's called) of six cats - black or black and white.  I've seen them before, but not in these numbers.  I'm planning to contact the local TNR folks to see if they can help
  5. A calf nursing from her momma
  6. Another cat, pooping unabashedly
  7. A black lab that I like to call Zooey's boyfriend; whenever he's in his yard, he gets up on the table to look over the fence - not aggressively - he's totally curious.  We always say hi.
  8. A gray cat who, in its attempt to get away from Zooey, jumped up onto said lab's fence.  Not his best morning, I'm sure.
  9. anas coitus - the poor hen was held UNDER WATER by her neck while the drake did his thing.  Fortunately for the hen's lungs, doing his "thing" lasted about three seconds.  Talk about a two-pump chump.  I guess that romance is dead, at least in the duck world.
  10. I really only add this to get a nice, round number, as it's not truly "interesting" by any stretch of the imagination - what seemed like a bazillion dump trucks, as the road that takes me to and from the canal is being repaved this week, meaning uneven pavement and lots of dust.  And police officers, in front of whom, apparently, Zooey likes to make an ass of herself.

We don't see a lot of wildlife on our weekly runs, unless you count that family of (probably) feral cats and the mallards who live along the canals.  Hopefully when we start trail running again we will also not see a lot of wildlife, at least of the poisonous/dangerous variety, although I will be happy to see a bunny or two cross our path.
I apologize for not having pics of any of the above events, but until I can get a fancy schmancy Garmin, the iPhone is going to be strapped to my arm, which makes it difficult to take pictures.  However, a few weeks ago I was compelled to take a few breaks to get a few snaps.  How I managed to not drop it while Zooey was pulling on me is basically a miracle.

What's the most interesting thing you've ever seen on a run?

Our favorite calf was quite interested in Zooey one morning.

Momma didn't care for Zooey barking at her baby.
(if you look carefully, she can see baby behind her;
she stepped in front of the calf when Zooey barked)

Not a snap of the telephone pole;
that's a vulture up there.
There had been two, but SOMEONE'S barking made one fly off.

3 comments:

  1. It is a ferocious dog that scares off a vulture. Way to go, Zooey. That baby cow was so adorable!

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    1. That calf is my favorite thing to run by. We always stop to say hello. I'm sure the owners wonder who the weird lady with the loud dog is.
      A few weeks ago, we also saw a goat sticking its head under the cinderblock fence to see what was going on, and that was stinking cute, but I didn't get a snap in time.

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