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shadow cat
Jan. 8th, 2008 08:55 pmListening to Cougar, edited by Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe
Everyone has some kind of cougar story. Mine doesn't involve a wild cougar, but I like it anyway: the last time we took a kid to the zoo, we stopped a decent distance from the cougar habitat so we could watch them without being in their faces. Someone else's three-year-old ran right up to the barrier, to the intense interest of the cougar nearest her. Cougar immediately went into stalking mode, while child cooed at it all oblivious. Then the kid's dad stepped forward toward her, the cougar saw the dad, and the most obvious 'aw, FUCK, there goes lunch' expression crossed its face before it hissed and slunk off. Just for a few seconds, all my empathy was with the cougar. Then, of course, my species priority reasserted itself. Still, it was a cool few seconds.
This book has some wonderful things in it (Rick Bass, Julia Corbett, Ted Kerasote, among others) and only a couple of pieces that got my hackles up. If you like cougars, you'll put up with (or skim over) the annoying parts without much minding, and if you don't, well, why would you care to read a book about them in the first place?
(7/300)
Everyone has some kind of cougar story. Mine doesn't involve a wild cougar, but I like it anyway: the last time we took a kid to the zoo, we stopped a decent distance from the cougar habitat so we could watch them without being in their faces. Someone else's three-year-old ran right up to the barrier, to the intense interest of the cougar nearest her. Cougar immediately went into stalking mode, while child cooed at it all oblivious. Then the kid's dad stepped forward toward her, the cougar saw the dad, and the most obvious 'aw, FUCK, there goes lunch' expression crossed its face before it hissed and slunk off. Just for a few seconds, all my empathy was with the cougar. Then, of course, my species priority reasserted itself. Still, it was a cool few seconds.
This book has some wonderful things in it (Rick Bass, Julia Corbett, Ted Kerasote, among others) and only a couple of pieces that got my hackles up. If you like cougars, you'll put up with (or skim over) the annoying parts without much minding, and if you don't, well, why would you care to read a book about them in the first place?
(7/300)
