My eyes have enough experience to cause my body to respond to a roach scuttle and a cricket lurch in their periphery entirely differently with no thought involved. The flutter of a small moth, the gait of a spider, and the sound of water falling on a concrete floor also can trigger things. Even frogs have their own system that they come with to sense motion and its significance to their survival. We don't know where Perrine has been, but nothing's managed to kill and eat either her or me yet, and neither has starved all the way to death. So her responses to the pointer are no surprise. Erica and Mel had no response to it. Eight years of indoors and regular feeding don't sharpen one's instincts. Roo ate a mole yesterday. Most of it. Brent and I still find occaisional feathers in the yard. He's not quite dead yet, and sometimes seems to feel fine. Still likes the morning wall ritual. He looks terrible, but he's been doing this for a year now. He reminds me of Grandma. Every possible malady, but 89 nonetheless. Survival is a potent evolutionary thing. But you know this. It's the ways we and ours behave because of it that are varied and fascinating. Another moth, not the usual kind. Better check those blankets and my antique army coat. I've got cedar, citronella, pennyroyal, and a finely honed ability to swat or grab those little bastards out of the air. Perrine meow out to play? That thing is still here.
What's hard-wired hunting
Even frogs have their own system that they come with to sense motion and its significance to their survival.
We don't know where Perrine has been, but nothing's managed to kill and eat either her or me yet, and neither has starved all the way to death. So her responses to the pointer are no surprise. Erica and Mel had no response to it. Eight years of indoors and regular feeding don't sharpen one's instincts. Roo ate a mole yesterday. Most of it. Brent and I still find occaisional feathers in the yard. He's not quite dead yet, and sometimes seems to feel fine. Still likes the morning wall ritual. He looks terrible, but he's been doing this for a year now. He reminds me of Grandma. Every possible malady, but 89 nonetheless. Survival is a potent evolutionary thing. But you know this. It's the ways we and ours behave because of it that are varied and fascinating.
Another moth, not the usual kind. Better check those blankets and my antique army coat. I've got cedar, citronella, pennyroyal, and a finely honed ability to swat or grab those little bastards out of the air. Perrine meow out to play? That thing is still here.