A lifetime ago – actually, only 6 years ago -, when I left my legal career and the Washington DC area to move to Maine full time, I embarked on a little project. By June 2018 I had finished the very first chapter of what I had hoped would become a series of vignettes about our experiences in Maine. It was dedicated to my Grandchildren.
I wrote two little books about “Pop of Penobscot”. Although not the protagonist, I had included myself, Nonna of Penobscot, in those stories.
I have so many little stories that I wrote for the third volume, one of them about the “Legend of the K’chi Casco Birch Tree”. I hope to finish it before the end of 2024. I thought I was done, but life happens, and some things need to be edited out. (Isn’t that the prerogative of the writer? Yes, but then it delays the process!).
Today I made a new friend, and of course, I immediately thought of my Grandchildren and another story. But this time, it will be about this handsome fox with perspicacious eyes that looked at me as if knowing something about me, or so I thought. He stopped when I said hello.
I interrupted his visit to the chicken coop, which is well protected. He looked at me and I loved those cotton-ball cheeks. He then decided to make himself at home, waiting for me to tell my side of the story. I need a name for this handsome character.
I have lost count of the many times I have been mocked for anthropomorphizing animals. I always felt that I was in good company, though, beginning with Aesop, La Fontaine, Rabier, and others, and ending with Walt Disney. In fact, historian Paul Johnson wrote a wonderful chapter in his book “Creators” contrasting Disney with Picasso. Worth a read.
The whole encounter brought back memories of the old Disney movie, The Fox and the Hound. We used to watch it when my kids were young. How they loved it!
Dum Spiro Spero 