As most of you know , I've always been around animals, I'm talkin' about the four legged kind.......
Most of them being Dogs, and most of them big beautiful types , retrievers mostly. Although the first one that I could remember, when I was about as big as a retriever, the family Dog was a beagle. Since I was too young to remember much, I'll move on to the next one that was our family Dog. His name was Frisky. He was a Belgin Colley, which is the size of a Colley, and all the resemblence, except he was black & white instead of the common blonde, that most people are used to...i.e...Lassie.
Frisky lived up to his name...always running with us at the State Park where I grew up, on the Housatonic River, and where my father was a Ranger. My fathers duties as a Ranger, were to keep an eye on the commings and going in the Park, checking on the campers & keeping the grounds manacured. On a dailey basis he would leave the office that was somewhat near the house & turn up the road to the Camp grounds. At that point, Frisky would be alerted at his post in front of our house & make a bee line for the truck heading out of the driveway with my father driveing to the camps destination.
Frisky wouldn't have any part of that in which my father would leave without him, so he would make a mad dash, and start running after him. Never realing catching up to him until my father turned into the park entrance, about a quarter mile up the road from our house. This was pretty much the routine everyday, except when my father would let him ride along.
One day, as Frisky was getting on in his years, and not as limber, he broke his front leg while trying to run after Dad. We immediately call on our lacal Vet, Dr. Vreeland. At that time Doctors of all sorts made house calls. After examineing him, he took him to his office & put a cast on him.
Frisky, did not quite understand the full empact of his wound, & thought he could still run after the truck heading up the road. It took awhile to make a full recovery with Doc 'V' checking in every other day or so.
Doc V, was a tall and gentle man, given his size. He took care of all our animals with care & understanding that made an impact on all our lives, right up until he retired liveing with his second wife, Nancy & enventual pasted away , in the town where my family helped founded many, many years earlier & where Doc had found the way of true love in living with nature.
I will now rewrite some of the passages that Doc V wrote in the 'Daily Observer' of Warren Connecticut. They were titled: FLORA & FAUNA
'Walking a ridge west of the Housatonic in the first hours of the morning today, I was struck by the silence this time of year. The only sound heard was the strong, slowly measured, threatening call of a Pileated Woodpecker as he warned me away from his 'parish'. No othersongs or snorts or frog clicks and my dogs seemed to listen 'for' something rather than 'to' something, as we strolled among looming cliffs, powerful mature hardwoods, and massive pines. The the forest seemed ruled by the mosses, ferns, and fungi like Indian Pipes, mushrooms, and bracket fungus that, with there fellow trees, beame the "floa era" while the "fauna" lay quiet.
For the first week in September, the pond behind Tranquil House contained three Great Egrets all from the south. They appeared to be walking on the lily pads and seemed to be successful in hunting food. These are also the size of the nurmerous Great Blues so common in most locales, but are brillantwhite. Cattle Egrets are common in the deep south and two years ago a snowy was paired with a Greater and spent a few weeks on our river. The Snowy was a great deal smaller and he and his friend had obviously partnered up...a common move when in strange country.
Curiosity led me to find out that the damage you are seeing now to some Maples is due to an insect called a "Peach Thrip." Thrip are tiny insect...sometimes 0.5mm....are black, and parastize....mites and aphids.....but in this case suck dry the Maple leaves.
In the same camp are the Tent Caterpillars who live in common condos and fill up on foliage until Fall when they go solo and make separate cocoons, winter over, and arise as brown moths in spring to repeat the performance. I mention this because the tents are so obvious now.
Parasites follow times of plenty...caution with market dealings these days!
Amid islands necklaced with granite and crowned with dark spruce, Nancy and I spent a few days on Deer Island by Penobscot bay near Bucksport Maine. There seemed to be the only water-room for lobster boats, some sailing craft, plus the immaculate beauty of the coast itself. We were re-acquainted with loons and eagles and then went to outer Cape Cod where I caught still another great fish, wasbiked and hiked to enervation, and bitten by a seagull , I was releasing from a tangle in fishing line.....then we all do that ...right..?!
If you get a chance to sit, walk, or just sit on the National Seashore at daybreack, don't miss it! The low- angled sun shines on the breasts of hovering terns and gulls and vbeneath the crests of breaking waves. You will feel closer to your origins than ever!!'
EWVreeland 9/20/98
As you can see , this brought many memories back with the mention of so many places and things, not only in my life , but I'm sure touched many of your's too..!
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