Horse Sense

The horse ambled west on Irving at a very slow pace, perhaps 3 mph. No one dared pass and risk scaring the horse, and it was a policeman riding it after all.

Horses are classified as a slow-moving vehicle in the California Drivers' Handbook:

Animal-Drawn Vehicles: Horse-drawn vehicles and riders of horses or other animals are entitled to share the road with motor vehicles. It is a traffic offense to scare horses or stampede livestock. Slow down or stop, if necessary, or when requested to do so by the riders or herders.

The common-sense course of slowing down and accepting one's circumstance, despite the temptation to speed around the horse, turned out to be written into law.

After he had gone two blocks, the policeman stopped and waved the traffic around. Both he and the drivers behaved sensibly, a sign of hope for civic life.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Time's recent cover story is about another example of how pendulums can swing too far [bold added]:

We have too many wild animals--from swine to swans. Thirty million strong and growing, the population of white-tailed deer in the U.S. is larger today than it was when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, according to National Wildlife Research Center scientist Kurt VerCauteren. They gobble up crops and vegetable gardens, dart into traffic and spread tick-borne diseases. Then there are the wild hogs. From a little herd imported to feed explorer Hernando de Soto's 16th century expedition, some 5 million feral pigs are rooting through city parks and private lawns in 48 of the 50 states...

And beavers. Nearly wiped out in the 19th century, they're back with a vengeance. In the Seattle suburb of Redmond, beavers are felling ornamental trees not far from Microsoft headquarters to build dams in the drainage culverts. Bald eagles are back too; one has been feasting on pet dogs near Saginaw, Mich. Raccoons bedevil the tony North Shore suburbs of Chicago. The world's largest Burmese pythons are no longer found in Burma; they are flourishing in South Florida. Wild turkeys swagger through Staten Island, N.Y. The yip of coyotes competes with the blare of taxi horns in New York City and Washington, while a fox has lately been in residence on the White House grounds. At least one mountain lion has had its photo snapped while hanging out in the Hollywood Hills.

It was easy to love the idea of wild animals....until the real animals foul gardens, damage property, or even endanger human lives. 40 years ago it was comparatively easy to ban certain activities in the name of animal protection; those bans have borne fruit, and not all are sweet.

Deer at the park last January.

Blessing of the Animals

The line started forming at noon. Everyone, whether he or she had two or four legs, waited peaceably.

This Sunday represented the eighth year that priests from the local Episcopal Church blessed pets and their owners in honor of animals' patron saint, Francis of Assisi.

Ladies from the Homeless Cat Network again set up a table. HCN spays feral cats who live in the wetlands and sets up feeding stations to minimize their impact on Bay wildlife. HCN's efforts appear to be working; the number of feral cats has shrunk to less than 100.

By two o'clock we were done, and we packed up the tables, chairs, and signs. Somewhere Saint Francis was smiling. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Great Moments in Food Science

While you and I may consider a coffee splurge to be a $3 latte at Starbucks, the upper 1% are paying eighty simoleons for coffee brewed from civet droppings.

At those heady prices Kopi Luwak is ripe for counterfeiting and adulterating (though for yours truly watering down would be a feature, not a bug).  But now a Japanese scientist may have come up with a way of detecting whether the dark brown juice in the cup is the genuine article.

Dr. Fukusaki’s quest began with many piles of civet faeces [blogger's note: British spelling makes it sound classier] , as well as undigested coffee beans from plantations in Bali, Java and Sumatra, all of which he treated by roasting them at 205°C and then grinding them up. Instead of popping them into a percolator at this point, though, he mixed them with distilled water, methanol and chloroform to extract the sorts of chemicals that give coffee its flavour. He then ran the extracts through a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer, to see what was in them.

The crucial giveaways of Kopi Luwak turned out to be four substances: citric acid, malic acid, pyroglutamic acid and inositol.

As the article points out, coffee drinkers can just add the chemicals themselves and get a much cheaper drink similar to Kopi Luwak. We'll wait and see; for us it will also need to pass the smell test. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Welcome Change

I've been able to go to the mountains only a few times this year. No longer a neophyte hiker, I still find the experience to be invigorating. Coming across shady glens, deer, and waterfalls can be delightful, and the sunshine, country air, and stillness are a welcome change from the office.

There are unpleasant surprises--for example, rattlesnakes, wasps, falls, and heat exhaustion--that can be avoided with preparation and watchfulness. (Confession: not always has your humble correspondent been prepared and watchful.)

A good pair of shoes, mosquito repellent, sunglasses, a hat, and a water bottle are all one needs to get started. All those, of course, and time. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Sorry, Bambi

Rancho San Antonio Park, Los Altos

Our impressions about nature are shaped at an early age. For city dwellers who have no connection or experience with hunting, it's hard to shake the idyllic image of Bambi. Wild animals are friendly, anthropomorphized beings, and the placid creatures that are seen in zoos do nothing to contradict that childhood conception.

We whose daily existence is lived far from the forest, i.e, urbanites and suburbanites, dream of Walden though few would actually live there.

Cougar near San Jose (SJMN photo)

The deer that are encountered in suburban parks know from experience that they have nothing to fear from humans. However, other animals that have begun to appear near human habitation are not so friendly.

The mountain lion (cougar):

Chris Wilmers, a mountain lion expert at UC Santa Cruz, has radio-collared 33 lions since 2008 between Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Mount Madonna County Park near Gilroy. He estimated that 50 to 100 lions live in the Santa Cruz Mountains.....The lion photographed weighs more than 100 pounds. Wilmers said it is a male from 4- to 10-years-old, and it looks healthy.

The feral pig:

Twenty-five years ago, spotty wild pig pockets were found in fewer than 20 different states. Now, they’re in 47 states [including California], with Florida, Texas, and a few others approaching crisis levels.

Wild pigs destroy the landscape and breed incessantly. Most alarmingly, they're very intelligent.

Pigs have been known to scope out traps for days before sending in the group's lowest ranking members to test for danger. And if a trap isn't built just right, the pigs will find a way out, either by climbing over each other or squeezing under the fencing.....feral pigs are quite elusive. Rarely seen during the day, they have learned to avoid being taken down by rifles or suckered into traps. [snip]

pigs have learned to break the floats in stock tanks to keep water flowing for their mud baths.

A single cat can take down a pig, but the latter have the smarts and the numbers. Despite what stock market experts say, the triumph of the pigs looks inevitable. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Afternoon at Half Moon Bay

Fish and chips (Flickr, lfstewart)

We pointed the car west to Half Moon Bay. The first stop was Barbara's Fish Trap, a very popular seafood house in Princeton-by-the-Sea. Barbara's Fish Trap has the no-frills ambience of the fishmonger's restaurant. It doesn't accept credit cards, the fish is very fresh, and there's a wait for a table even at 2 p.m. on a weekday. The fellow in front of us said that he always comes to Barbara's when he visits from Riverside, 434 miles to the south.

Yes, the price of the saddle is $3,000.

We ordered the fish- or calamari-and-chips, and the food tasted as good as it looked. The hot, crunchy crust married with a moist, tender interior rivaled the best Japanese tempura. We shared an appetizer of clam chowder in a bread bowl. Dipping chunks of sourdough into a thick mixture of clams, spices, and celery (but no cream, the chowder is ideal for the lactose intolerant) is the quintessential experience on the Northern California coast. Four fish entrees, clam chowder, three soft drinks, tax, and a 16% tip cost an even $100.

Our next stop was the Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel store on Main Street. Live chickens were on display in coops close to the sign "The Best Place to Pick Up Chicks."

On the front door was a Romney-Ryan sticker. Inside, scattered among the feed and livestock paraphernalia, were politically incorrect signs and cards. A moosehead was mounted over the front door. The sensibility of the store in these parts is, to say the least, unique.

Prices, except for a few outliers like a $3,000 "show saddle," compared very favorably to those in the closer-in suburbs. We picked up some supplies for our guinea pigs. A large bag of grass was $5, a fraction of the cost online or at PetSmart. When we complained to the owner that alfalfa was mixed in with the grass (calcium in alfalfa can cause bladder stones in small animals), she promptly instructed the workers to fill a new bag from the pristine bales outside.

Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel is on historic Main Street.

Our final stop was the New Leaf Community Market, an organic-food chain that is slowly expanding into the Bay Area, though it's unlikely that we'll have one on the Peninsula any time soon. The prices were equal to or less (in some cases much less) than Whole Foods, so we bought three shopping bags (recyclable, of course) full of groceries.

I was in Half Moon Bay just over a year ago for a charity function. We won't wait as long for our next visit. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Albino Alligator

We visit the California Academy of Sciences a couple of times each year and always spend a few minutes watching Claude. The albino alligator can sit motionless for hours. We first thought he was a marble representation of a live animal, as artificial as the examples of the taxidermist's art in the Natural History section. Then he moved, and our interest was piqued.

17-year-old Claude can live till 80. Captivity suits albinos, most of whom don't make it to adulthood in the wild.

Initially, Claude had a green tank mate named Bonnie.

That relationship ended badly on a Saturday night in early 2009 when Bonnie bit Claude on his right front foot.

"Because he is albino, he has reduced vision. Claude would go into the water and bump into things, and Bonnie would snap at him," said his handler [Brian] Freiermuth, standing next to the swamp where Claude was in the 78-degree water with his head against the glass.

The Jan. 3 chomping of Claude's foot was apparently the final straw. On March 24, Bonnie was returned to a farm in Florida.

"Claude has been more active since Bonnie left," Freiermuth said. "He is better by himself, as he was stressed out with her there. He has interactions with his turtles. He is eating well. He knows his name and responds to whistle commands."

Having a tank mate has its benefits, but not if she snaps and bites. There are more unpleasant ways to live than lying on a rock by oneself, eating, and interacting with turtles. Good for Claude, may he live long and prosper. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Afternoon Walk

Deer were more numerous than I remembered.

For the first time in six months I had a few extra hours to spend on the trails of Rancho San Antonio Park. Travel, illness, and business had kept me away from the South Bay.

Now it's a New Year, when we can banish bad habits and (re)start some good ones.

Gus

Gus is an 11-year-old pug. Our friend rescued him from the shelter when he was three.

Gus' fierce countenance belies his kind disposition. He greets strangers by rubbing their leg with the side of his body, perhaps something he learned from the cats he grew up with. During our one-hour visit, he was constantly on the move, running to each of us for an affectionate pat.

Gus wants everyone in the group to stay together. When I went to the bathroom, he barked at the closed door until I opened it. When we finally got up to leave, he blocked the front door, and our friend had to pick him up. He cried mournfully at our exit.

We met Gus for the first time today. I wonder how friendly he'll be when next we visit, now that he's gotten to know us. © 2012 Stephen Yuen

Bright and Beautiful

On a bright and beautiful Sunday we gathered at the Foster City Dog Park to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. In keeping with the Catholic and Anglican tradition of honoring the patron saint of animals, creatures great and small lined up to receive a blessing from priests.

Attendance was sparse because of an unusual confluence of events. An estimated one million tourists were expected to converge on San Francisco because of Giants playoff baseball, 49ers football, the Blue Angels exhibition, the America's Cup, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (that annually draws hundreds of thousands).

Though we live in its shadow, most of us count ourselves blessed to be living close to the City that was named after the great Saint himself, the saint who penned the second most-recognized prayer in Christendom:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury,pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen