Marking, or squat and pee.

Boundaries!

I know I spend  a lot of time around animals. Perhaps too much time. But I was admiring the simplicity of marking. Humans mark their territory too. Of course we build walls and doors that are the most defined areas of territory, but we are not limited to built structure. We mow. We garden. We fence. We plant tree lines, dig ditches and build stone walls. We mark with visual integrity. Pretty. How much time do we spend marking? What about the beauty of squat and pee? Efficient, mobile, satisfyingly simple and invisible. Yet, serviceable. Lucky dogs! Each morning, Tucker, the family hound, travels southwest where the edge of the woods meets the soybeans, gets the job done, bounds home grinning. This is where the coyotes travel from, and he's just putting them on notice. The coyotes don't seem to care about the visual boundaries of lawn and fence, but I think Tucker's boundaries give them pause. Now, twice now this summer, a large coyote has ventured past the kitchen garden only to meet my patented "Scare the bejeezus out of predators" routine. It involves screaming, lots of rotating arms and running after my prey for some distance. Now, the strained vocal cords and inflamed rotator cuffs lead me to believe marking is much more efficient. But, my talents don't lie there. When we moved to Cowfeathers, the 200 year old barn was unused and a bit neglected. The groundhogs had seen this as a real opportunity, and had created a fine network of tunnels and holes in the bottom of the barn. Well, Hannah, our huntress mutt (now sadly gone from cancer) wasted no time in fixing up the ground hogs. She wouldn't pee atall, except in the barn, preferably right in the holes. "Take That, ya naughty hog!" And the ones that ventured out, did so but once. Quick, efficient, mobile, marking is a beautiful thing.