Some people think critters are dumb. I've been privileged to observe nature out here on this farm for nearly 30 years. Deer, turkey, squirrels, dogs, whatever.

I once shot a coyote. It ran off. I got the dog we had at the time and took it out with me to find the coyote. I took off in one direction and the dog would stop, bark at me and head off in another direction. Three rimes this happened before I decided, hey, this is a Lassie moment, Timmy. So I followed the dog and she led me right to the coyote that was more than 100 yards away.

After that I decided to see what would happen if I let the dog train me. The more I did that the smarter that dog got and me too. After a while I decided to become an observer of nature and learned many things about critters. Yea, they can't work calculus(I guess) but they are a damned long ways off from being dumb.

Which brings me to today's observation. Every morning dog and I go out for my walk. Dog hunts rabbits. I walk. This morning, going around the pond, our resident red tail hawk lands in a dead tree by the pond. It does this on a regular bases. Looking for a nice fat puppy meal that will last for several days...I'm thinking. Today, it landed in the tree and I happened to be at the tree. I was talking to it to see how much attention it would pay me...none...didn't care. So I amble on to the other side of the pond and look up at hawk, looking down at the dog. Dog goes into the brambles like it does everyday. Hawk tenses up...giving the dog a serious eyeball. All of a sudden hawk goes swooping down and off to the right away from the dog. As I watch it I see running along the ground, a rabbit. Hawk chases rabbit across the field...dogs clueless.

That hawk didn't care one wit about the dog...it was waiting for the dog to jump the rabbit like she does from that same place just about every day.

Hawk using the dog for what she was designed to do...jump rabbits.

Dumb critter...probably not.

I consider things like that a privilege to observe. Who's probably ever seen anything like that?