Everyone Gets a Say and No One Will Eat the Carrots

Of course, Bow is not the only one in our family who has mood swings or who feels the need to express himself.

 In this video from two days ago, Brownie and Leo got to chime in, and each of them had a say. Notice how tolerant Bow is of their self-expression.

Leo is the youngster, and he has so much energy that he can spend hours barking at a squirrel who is up in  a tree/ Brownie is the older of the two dogs, and sometimes he just complains. Although we don't know exactly how old he is, he must be at least nine by now. Here is a link to an article that explains how we got him.

http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/Love-and-Commitment-and-Chimpanzee

When there are rabbits on the other side of the fence, both dogs tend to notice. They regard the rabbits as trespassers.

On Tueday evening, as I was backing out of the driveway, I spotted a rabbit by the fence.

Though this picture makes the rabbit seem quite far away, it's the closest I have gotten to any of the wild rabbits on my land, and it almost seemed as if I could reach out and touch it.

At first I tried filming the rabbit from the window of the car, then I rolled down the window and eventually I tried to exit the car and get closer, but between the barking and my car's annoying alarm, the rabbit was scared away pretty fast. When I returned from shopping that evening, I saw the three rabbits I know, the big one, the medium one and the small one, run into the woods single file, smallest first and biggest last.

After this close encounter, I decided to leave some baby carrots for the rabbits outside. But it's been two days. and nobody has eaten those carrots! I have also not seen any of the rabbits since then. Do you think maybe I offended them by offering store-bought food?

What is wrong with those carrots, anyway? Bow won't eat them, either. Provisioning wildlife is much harder than people make it seem. What grows on my land naturally is apparently much better than what I can buy at the store. And the rabbits, the turtles, the squirrels, the birds and Bow are all in on some secret about these carrots that I don't know.

Bow is very tolerant of my blind ignorance. I don't notice what he thinks is obvious. Sometimes Bow asks me to move aside so he can have more room to display, as happened in the video above from yesterday.

This morning, I had to go mow the grass in the backyard. The dogs wanted to play. Brownie was so into the game of fetch-the-rock that he acted like a very young puppy.

Leo, who does not come pre-wired with the fetch gene, just barks a lot when we play. His enjoyment of the fetch-game is entirely vicarious.

I did eventually mow the grass, as you can see by the evidence on the mower. I think the rabbits in the fields might actually appreciate the remains of grass on the mower better than they like the carrots that I left them out back. Too bad I can't get them to come clean the mower  -- or better yet, trim the grass in the backyard, when the dogs are asleep indoors at night.

The View From Outside the Pen

Most days, for nearly twelve hours a day, I am with Bow, inside the pens. But I do occasionally go outside, and when I do, this is what it looks like.

This was my front yard, yesterday morning. Everything is in bloom, and the birds are singing. I brought some redbud blossoms for Bow to try again, as they have fully opened up by now, and even the leaves are starting to come in.

Bow decided he would rather watch me eat the flowers than eat them himself. They taste fine, but it's just like salad: not enough calories to live off. Redbud would make a nice garnish, but not a meal.

The weather has gotten cooler this morning, so much so that I am wearing a jacket. Bow is sleepy, because the sky is cloudy and there is not that much light.

Earlier, I went out to the back yard to mow what grass we have left. I have not been taking care of the grass, and the dogs have worn out big patches. However, what remains needs to be kept fairly low. This gives me an opportunity to interact more with the dogs, but Bow feels left out.

Notice how when Bow rattles the grid, the pea plants shudder? I am not sure what to do about that. In the distance, we could occasionally hear gunshots. Our neighbors must be out hunting.This upset Bow a little, but the dogs did not care.

Brownie really wanted me to throw him a rock, so I complied.

Brownie was very happy that I threw him that rock, but he did not return it to me. He decided it was time to bury it. Leo just wanted to be petted.

I use a hand-pushed reel mower, which is good exercise, but I stop many times to look at things in the yard.

The dogwood is in full bloom now. The dogs look happy under its snowy blossoms.

Bow, on the other hand, was not always so happy while I was out in the yard. This is what he looked like from outside the pen.

This is the way most people view primates in zoos and sanctuaries. Even the people who work there as caretakers often do not get to go in.  It is not the best way to really get to know a chimpanzee and develop a long term relationship. But when we go inside, as I did, after I had mowed the grass, the grid disappears, and we see the real chimp.

Bow wanted me to groom him, so I did,  but now Leo was jealous. You can't please everyone all at once!