The animal of the day was a mule. Deuce to be exact. She was born in the pasture across the road, so I’ve “known” her all of her life. Sometimes she comes to the fence to greet me, but it’s not like we’re old friends. No, I think I’m just a curiosity to her. I pulled into the drive to be greeted by Deuce standing in the middle of the drive. I rolled my window down and she came right towards me, the truck and the open window. Now, I’m a little intimidated by her – she’s SO big. So I rolled the widow up so she wouldn’t stick her nose in the window which I think she would have done! I inched the truck forward and she moved. I pulled into the parking space in front of the Bunkhouse. I could see Deuce in the rear view mirror as she came across the drive and stopped right at my door. I was just laughing. This was so delightful to me. Here I was trapped by her and it was getting hot in the truck! I pulled on the door handle and the noise startled her enough to move out of my way. She walked to the north end of the Bunkhouse and started nibbling at the solar lights I have along the ramp. At one point I thought she took one in her mouth and walked off with it.
Deuce walked around the Bunkhouse and came to the south side of the building. Loaded down with stuff from the truck, I stopped a moment, wondering what she would do if I stood on the Bunkhouse walk by the front door. So I climbed the 3 steps and, lo and behold, she walked back over to me. We stood there together for a few minutes and I talked gently with her. Again I was getting hot and, thankfully, she moved away so I could get to the back door of the Main House. I was fascinated by her presence, so after calling Jess, her owner, to let him know she was out, I grabbed the camera and went back out to the deck. I went to the east side and . . . there she came towards me again. She came right up to the deck and pawed on the ground a little and then stuck her nose right through the deck railing. She had to turn her head sideways to get her nose in there – and she kept doing it! I just chuckled with delight. I was not able to reach out and touch her. Still too intimidated by her size and the unknown. She was much braver than I!
She kept sticking her nose through the railing and sniffing at me. At one point she went around to the north side of the deck (where the steps up to the deck are located) and I followed her. She again pawed lightly at the ground and, I’m telling ya, it looked like she wanted to come right up the steps! I moved back behind the porch railing and she followed me over there. I walked along the deck railing and she followed me. She never acted this friendly towards me or this curious about me in the past. We’ve been outside together before – never this close. She walked around, showing me all sides of her and each time she would come back to the edge of the deck and stick her nose through. We’d been there together about 20 minutes when she saw her sister, Traveler, across the road and started running in that direction. She only went as far as the big tree east of the Main House and directly across from my office window. She seemed to appreciate the shade! I decided to go in and watch her from my office. By the time I got to the office, she was gone. I went to the front door and looked out. Jess had come along in his big red truck and she followed him home. It was an incredible experience for me. I didn’t DO anything for her to pay that much attention to me!
I never was comfortable with animals because my family didn’t have any house pets when I was a kid. I’m the one the cats and dogs want to sit with when I go to see friends, though. Once a huge golden retriever took it upon herself to share a love seat with me and put her head in my lap!
A final note – I went out last night, hoping my owl friend from the night before would be there. I didn’t see her. I prayed for a bit, then looked to the fence across the drive and there was a larger-than-last-night’s owl sitting on the fence. I walked to the end of the sidewalk to get a little closer look, when another owl flew up off the ground pretty close to me and landed on the bird feeder in the Main House yard. It sat there looking around and suddenly saw me. It moved it’s head, looking closer at me like it was trying to figure out what I was. It looked around again, then back at me and cocked its head 2-3 times, like it wondered what I was doing there. It sat there a little longer, then flew up to the top of the electric pole across the driveway. The big owl on the fence sat there through all this. Both owls flew to where I was unable to see them shortly afterwards.This is all so incredible to me! I love interacting with the animals like this!
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