Storytelling

Last Saturday I was in Phoenix and had lunch with Joy Collins and Cathy Marley. We met at the Glendale Olive Garden for a chance to catch up, talk shop, and have the Olive Garden's fabulous salad -- plus I was delivering their copies of the Blog Party Book.

We did the usual, "How have you been?" conversation. Cathy asked how I'm doing in Pine. I told a few stories, mostly about the javelina. They were very active last week. Joy and Cathy told about the javelina attacks in Sedona -- thank God, Sedona isn't too near Pine. Actually, they told me lots more about javelina than I really wanted to know.

One thing for sure, those are large, stocky animals and have the reputation of being quite dangerous -- which I believe without a doubt. I was trying to describe the sound they make when they call to each other, it is more like a scream. I'm more sure of it after being outside a few minutes ago hearing one a few houses away.

They seem to have a territory, like most animals. Every few days their travels bring them by Jean's house (where I'm staying). One will call, then another, another, and another -- from every direction, it seems. I think they are saying, "Hey guys, let's go meet at Jean's house and scare the beejeebies out of Nadine."

The other night it sounded like a dance troupe was on the front deck, dancing the Jitter Bug. At first I was sure people were coming to the door -- in the middle of the night. It took forever for Jean's dog to wake up and bark until they left. (Some watch dog!)

Anyway, Joy said javelina's have poor eyesight. I couldn't help going with that and explaining how, because the cabin is built on a mountain, one end of the deck has quite a bit of clearance, while the part that turns and runs across the front of the house ends close to the ground.

As the javelina come up the mountain, they walk under the deck. Since they are the size of a large dog, only more stout in stature, (with the poor eyesight and all) they must be smacking their forehead on the cross beams of the deck. Thump, thump, thump...until there is a really loud one and they must reach the end of their ability to go any farther -- I'm not going out to check, so I'm just guessing, because I see them come out from the side of the deck, form into a group again and head across the road. I was a bit dramatic telling the story, hand to forehead with each "Thump."

Joy and Cathy think I should write these stories down. (There were other stories about local customs and a few colorful people I've met.) I might tell a few of the animal stories from time to time, but I best not tell too much about the locals if I want to stay here a while.

If anyone is interested, there are 4 copies of the Blog Party book left. http://nadinelamanbooks.com/books.html

Find Joy here: http://www.joycollins.com/
Find Cathy here: http://www.cathymarley.com/

More about Javalina:
http://www.azgfd.gov/video/javelina.shtml
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/urban_javelina.shtml
http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_javelina.shtml

Now we all know more about Javalina than we really need to know.