Okay, the previous installments covered critters wearing feathers and critters wearing not much except color, but even though I promised to dangle slithering, venom-slathering, shudder-inducing monsters in front of you introduce some of the more interesting poikilothermic ectotherms waiting to kill me around every corner we occasionally see here, I'm going to take advantage of an encounter I had yesterday and was damned lucky to escape alive fortunate enough to document photographically -- which fangirls Foxfier and Karla the Threadbndr should appreciate.
I was walking back from locking up the classroom late yesterday and, when I turned the corner, I came nose-to-kneecap with something coming around the corner from the opposite direction.
A golden jackal.
Remember I said that desert foxes and jackals don't hang around waiting to have their pictures taken? He did a *clackity-clackity-claws-scrabbling-on-terrazo-running-in-place* about face and lit out like he'd just bumped into Michael Moore with a bottle of ketchup in his hand. By the time I got into my office, grabbed the camera, set it to outdoors, cranked it to 10x mag, turned it right-side-up and looked through the viewfinder, he was a quarter-mile away, and moving *fast*.
I figured that was the best shot I'd get, but he took a left into the desert behind the bunker. Just as he came back into sight, I gave my best Dog-Whisperer *fweeeeeeep* and he stopped.
And looked.
*click*
Not too shabby, considering the autofocus was jumping in-and-out, huh? It was almost dusk, so his coat looks a lot darker than it really is.
And -- as luck would have it -- right after the jackal disappeared, I saw yet *another* little furry critter, but this one actually came up to me as if he *wanted* to have his picture taken!
This one's for you, BCR!
Cute little dickens, ain't he?
I was walking back from locking up the classroom late yesterday and, when I turned the corner, I came nose-to-kneecap with something coming around the corner from the opposite direction.
A golden jackal.
Remember I said that desert foxes and jackals don't hang around waiting to have their pictures taken? He did a *clackity-clackity-claws-scrabbling-on-terrazo-running-in-place* about face and lit out like he'd just bumped into Michael Moore with a bottle of ketchup in his hand. By the time I got into my office, grabbed the camera, set it to outdoors, cranked it to 10x mag, turned it right-side-up and looked through the viewfinder, he was a quarter-mile away, and moving *fast*.
I figured that was the best shot I'd get, but he took a left into the desert behind the bunker. Just as he came back into sight, I gave my best Dog-Whisperer *fweeeeeeep* and he stopped.
And looked.
*click*
Not too shabby, considering the autofocus was jumping in-and-out, huh? It was almost dusk, so his coat looks a lot darker than it really is.
And -- as luck would have it -- right after the jackal disappeared, I saw yet *another* little furry critter, but this one actually came up to me as if he *wanted* to have his picture taken!
This one's for you, BCR!
Cute little dickens, ain't he?
Nice pic of the jackal, Mr. DeBille.
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