Of Beautiful Birds and Scary Snakes

This week, I walked along the San Antonio River with four of the Wednesday Walkie Talkies. As we covered the stretch between the Pearl Brewery Complex and the Southwest School of Art and Craft, we saw golden-crowned night herons, mallards and egrets--all benign and beautiful.

Last weekend I walked along another waterway, Hondo Creek, and encountered something at the other end of the spectrum: a small, scary-looking snake. My master spotted it and both he and I hustled away. But ever the student of nature, my mistress hung around to observe and take photos.

Now make no mistake, she, too was freaked out as the snake’s heavy body and diamond pattern gave the appearance of a viper. Worse, when she poked a stick in its direction, the serpent made like a cobra and flattened its head. Mary watched for what seemed an eternity as it continued to hold its neck aloft and shoot out its forked black tongue.

Worried for my sake I guess, she moved on as soon as I came back to check on her. When she learned what the snake was, however, she was sorry she hadn’t hung around. Based on photos she took, a herpetologist friend of her son identified it as a harmless hognose snake. If Mary had continued to push a stick at the snake, it would have rolled over and played dead. So I expect if we ever see another I’m in for a long wait.

Cambodian Dreamscape, Day of the Dead

Last week, my mistress met with a walking buddy to help with a creative project. Martha Siv had agreed to fashion a “Tablescape” for an upcoming Kappa Kappa Gamma fund-raiser. The wife of Sichan Siv, a Killing Fields escapee, had a collection of Cambodian pieces which could be combined for a table centerpiece. But how?

After more than three hours of selecting, discarding, arranging and rearranging, the ladies came up with a tabletop they named Cambodian Dreamscape. It features, among other things, woodcarvings of dancing gods, lace-like baskets, hand woven silk textiles, wooden drums with snakeskin heads, copies of Sichan’s autobiography, “Golden Bones,” and a silver squash and chicken--all Cambodian.

Now I wasn’t there, but it’s just as well because the size I am, I can’t really see what’s on a table. (Of course I can smell what’s up there and jump up like a jack-in-the-box cadging treats when my masters are eating.) Over the weekend, however, I got to see an amazing Day of the Dead display. And this one had things at dog level as well as up high.

In a barn in the Texas Hill Country, the owners and some friends created an astonishingly artistic and moving installation honoring deceased loved ones. They invited guests to join in the celebration, which originated in Mexico.

The Day of the Dead display included, among a myriad of other things, mountains of sun-colored marigolds; fanciful wooden, papier mache and clay funereal figures from Mexico; strings of papel picado; favorite foodstuffs, beverages, toys and other possessions of the deceased; burning candles; and photos of the departed. The magical Day of the Dead altar space, redolent of flowers, burning candles and incense, held pictures of both the hosts’ and the guests’ lost loved ones.

I wandered through the Day of the Dead space, along a row of marigolds on the floor leading to the altar filled with tributes to people and yes, beloved dogs, who have passed to the other side. When I go, I do hope my master and mistress will put my collar on that altar.