There was a video on my Facebook page showing wild animals interacting with humans, or should I say, with the vehicles that the humans were in. Out of the four close encounters, only one or two, I could fully understand.
The first was a car stopped somewhere on the African plains. There were two lions looking in the windows, and probably deciding that if they could gain entrance, then they didn’t have to hunt for tonight’s dinner.
The second was a pissed-off rhinoceros, with a very large pointed horn, battering the side of a small car that was stopped. That wasn’t that surprising, considering that they don’t see well, and a foreign object could mean danger. What the rhinoceros didn’t consider was, the possibility of poachers in the car who would have gladly shot the rhino, just for that beautiful large pointed horn.
Next, we see an Asian Elephant standing next to a very small stopped car. The elephant then decided it would be fun, to just push the little car on its side, which it did. To me, it seemed like it was curious about the car, and just wanted to have some fun. Similar to curious whales, when they encounter people in rubber boats, and just having a little fun, up-ending them.
The last animal was a very large bull, with very large horns. We see the obviously angry bull, running down a road in a small, which looked like a European town, until it came across a small car parked on the side of the road with a driver inside. Then the bull started to ram the car, with its large horn, under the right front fender, until it finally pierced the car’s radiator, and all the water just flowed out. I couldn’t for the life of me figure this one out.
Of course, this video reminded me of my close encounter with a wild animal. No, it wasn’t in a far-off exotic land, well maybe, just southern New Jersey. I was living and working in Manhattan at the time, and I decided I needed a get-away, week-end home. I found the perfect house, located at the southern part of Ocean County, on the north side of Great Bay. It was a small house, built in the late 40’s, but it had a 40-foot dock for my two boats, and access through the wetlands to Great Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
One weekend, my parents drove down to visit, and I decided to take them to this colonial town restoration on the other side of the bay. After touring the restored town, we walked along the bay-front, eating ice cream. Mine was in a sugar cone, and as I walked along the bank with my parents, I was holding the ice cream cone in my right hand, and to the right side of my body. All of a sudden, a laughing gull swooped down, over my right shoulder, knocking the ice cream cone out of my hand, and onto the ground. Then, it was joined by other gulls, all making that laughing sound, fighting amongst themselves, as they consumed every drop of the ice cream. At first, I was really angry, and wanted to shoo them off of the ice cream, until my father said, “You’re not going to win, just get another ice cream cone.” It was then that I started to laugh at the situation, and realized I was just mugged by a laughing gull.
Well, at least it’s a good story to tell.
