Some Sort of Mammal Leaps from the Creek

September 27, 2010.  Monday.

Situation:  Work a little in the afternoon.  It’s been drizzling all day, and I’ve been feeling tired, and when I get home I tell Moi, who’s in the kitchen canning pears, that I’m going to take a nap and I’ll take Mway for a walk later.  But Moi tells me it’s supposed to start raining harder later in the day, so I decide to take Mway out right away.

State of the Path:  At the bottom of the porch steps are two bags of trash that Moi has just tossed there.  The birch branch is lying beside them.  I pick it up, then grab my walking stick.  Out on the path, like I did the other day, I parry back the sagging goldenrod as best as I can, a stick in either hand.  The damp leaves make a soft, plushy sound as I step on them.  That sound, and the rain falling on the ground and plopping on my safari helmet, is the main sound today, and maybe just a bird or two, but no cicadas.  At the opening to bug land, the New York or New England asters are wide opened; and as they’ve gotten more flowers so their stalks have lengthened.  Raindrops bejewel the now pale leaves of the touch-me-nots.  I note again that most of the jewelweed flowers are gone, but just as I note this, I come upon a plant or two that still has quite a few left.  I find a fat seed pod to touch, and it bursts between my finger tips.  By the time I finish walking along the creek and come back into bug land, my pants and shirt are soaked, and I start moving as fast as I can, wincing as I push my way through the bent-over briars and goldenrod.

State of the Creek:  The major puddles are back (but I reflect today that the aquifer that’s the proper source of the creek must still be quite low, and I wonder how much rain it will take to restore it).  The puddles at the black walnut tree lie over beds of leaves.  As I’m staring down at them, Mway slips down the creek bank and starts sniffing in the cavities beneath the bank.  Immediately a small bright-brown mammal leaps out of the creek, runs across the path, and slinks for cover in the weeds between the path and bug land.  It looks maybe like a famished rabbit, but I think more likely it might be a muskrat.  Mway doesn’t see it, and while she’s still sniffing around the creek bank, I walk into the weeds to see if I can find it, but it has hidden itself very well.

The Fetch:  As I toss the stick for Mway up at the clearing, my wet sleeves and pantlegs cling coldly against my arms and legs, and Mway fetches the stick more times than I want her too and coaxes me to play “Put it down,” which, however, I only play once.  Back at the house door, where Mway drops the stick, I see a goldenrod stalk on top of the stick, which Mway must have caught between her teeth and carried back with her.