As it were…

When I ended the previous post in the My Story category (almost 2 years ago) I mentioned I’d do one more chapter with smaller stories. Obviously, that didn’t happen. This isn’t really an attempt to fix that, I was just reminded of a funny anecdote from my youth the other day, and decided to share it.

You may recall that the first summer we were up north I spent some time with just my Dad and his brother while we got the house started. We pretty much lived outside, sleeping in a small shed at night. One day while we were sitting around the fire after lunch a chickadee flew into the lower branches of a tree near us. It was several feet over my head, probably about eye level to an adult. My dad gestured to get my attention, and pointed at it. Very slowly I picked up the gun next to me, walked over right underneath it, and raised my gun until it was about six inches under the bird.

Then I shot him.

As soon as the stream of water hit him however, he began fluffing his feathers and wiggling all over. I had expected him to fly away, but he seemed to enjoy the unexpected spray. I shot again and he fluffed again. I emptied the squirt gun, and when I brought my arms down he flew away.

All in all, it was one of the more fun interactions I’ve had with wild-life.