Prickish

I was leaving my home the day before yesterday when I saw a local jackrabbit run for cover under an opuntia cactus stand on the river I live on, the Santa Margarita.

 I wrote about this very same stand several months ago as I saw a bobcat taking shelter there and thought about the help sharp, spiny habitats can provide in keeping a creature alive against bigger foe. In our valley the apex predator is the mountain lion but they are rarely seen.

Later that afternoon I was amazed to see a huge doe cross the road in front of me running for the same cactus stand. 

I missed the shot, this was a second too late.

In any case, it has always been rare to see deer in these parts but the mule deer we do see can be very large. 

Neighbor Jerry M. got some good pics of a couple a few months ago.

When I had my horse (for 28 years) I ran into some bucks in the brush at eye level with my 14 . 3 hand Arabian gelding, Jasper.

It's great to see deer, I wonder how they manage to steer clear of the puma but I guess they do. 

I called neighbor Stephanie and she said this very same large doe was in her backyard a little while ago.

Anyway it is cool to think that animals are smart enough to surround themselves with very sharp spikes to occasionally keep themselves alive. 

Some of us humans have sharp spikes too and they operate similarly for keeping unwanted people at bay. 

They call us pricks.

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I mention this because we lost a favorite shrub of my wife's this week and were talking about replacing it and she said, "Please, nothing with the sharp points you keep planting around the ranch. You know, those awful plants intellectuals like to collect."

I asked her if she meant cycads and she nodded yes. I laughed.

She does most of the watering and there are a lot of plants that can lacerate you around here, from cactus to sagos, yuccas to puya alpestris, this place can lay you bare.

Even the oak leaves have a point.

We will be looking for something nice and soft.