Long-Necked Preposterous
When I was eleven my cousin Lynda, who was nine years older, lived with us for a while. Although I always called her my cousin, she wasn't my first cousin: she was Amy and Frank's daughter. Frank was my mother's first cousin. So I don't know what relation that makes Lynda really but she was like a big sister to me.
When it snowed we went out on the top lawn and did our best to make fake animal tracks. Lynda had discovered a very short verse - I think it was by Shel Silverstein - and we used to go around the lawn making tracks, whilst chanting it.
"These are the tracks of a Long-Necked Preposterous
Looking for a female Long-Necked Preposterous
But there aren't any."
Yes, barely even a verse. But good fun to stomp around the lawn to.
Lynda died in a cave-diving accident, aged thirty-five, in 1982. I think of her whenever it snows. Although actually, I think of her often anyway. The other day, at Leeds University, I saw a student wearing one of those Sixties-style check coats and I thought, for half a second, that it was Lynda. Finally my memory caught up with me and I remembered that she used to wear one very like it, in the late sixties. Isn't it strange how memory works?
Today, in the snow, on the lawn, we had real animal tracks:
So what's this animal then? I think the two on the left must be its back feet, and the ones on the right its front ones, put down first.
Here's a row of them:
Underneath is another set of tracks with round paws. I reckon those are probably a lion.
The top ones are some kind of hopping creature, I suspect. Kangaroo? Rabbit? I ought to know this better because once when I was very small I won a book all about animal tracks as a school prize. Where is it when I need it? Somewhere in this house, I'll be bound, like everything else in the world.
Okay, I'll give you my best guess and it is Grey Squirrel. Any other opinions?
When it snowed we went out on the top lawn and did our best to make fake animal tracks. Lynda had discovered a very short verse - I think it was by Shel Silverstein - and we used to go around the lawn making tracks, whilst chanting it.
"These are the tracks of a Long-Necked Preposterous
Looking for a female Long-Necked Preposterous
But there aren't any."
Yes, barely even a verse. But good fun to stomp around the lawn to.
Lynda died in a cave-diving accident, aged thirty-five, in 1982. I think of her whenever it snows. Although actually, I think of her often anyway. The other day, at Leeds University, I saw a student wearing one of those Sixties-style check coats and I thought, for half a second, that it was Lynda. Finally my memory caught up with me and I remembered that she used to wear one very like it, in the late sixties. Isn't it strange how memory works?
Today, in the snow, on the lawn, we had real animal tracks:
So what's this animal then? I think the two on the left must be its back feet, and the ones on the right its front ones, put down first.Here's a row of them:
Underneath is another set of tracks with round paws. I reckon those are probably a lion.The top ones are some kind of hopping creature, I suspect. Kangaroo? Rabbit? I ought to know this better because once when I was very small I won a book all about animal tracks as a school prize. Where is it when I need it? Somewhere in this house, I'll be bound, like everything else in the world.
Okay, I'll give you my best guess and it is Grey Squirrel. Any other opinions?
posted by Daphne at 7:02 pm
7 Comments:
Well whatever it WAS, I reckon the lion has had it by now.
Given the proximity of the front and back feet and the shallow depth of the tracks I'd probably rule out an African elephant but the Asian one could still be in the frame.
But a safer bet would be your mother. I've seen photos of her dancing on the streets of Amsterdam and although no Ginger Rogers, she looked light enough on her pins to have created those prints after a few bevvies and a spicy kebab.
I'd set up a webcam if I was you.
Next door's cat?
Children of first cousins are second cousins. There now, wasn't that simple?
If you and Lynda both had children, they would be third cousins, but you yourself would be a second cousin once removed to Lynda's children, if she had any, regardless of whether you had any children of your own. And, likewise, she to yours.
Always glad to be of help.
Shhhhhhhhh be vewry, vewry, quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.
This footprints look rather familiar to me, so I think they could be of the Bavarian Wolpertinger.
Have you seen anything like this
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Wolpertinger.jpg
in your garden recently?
Strange thing, memory. It's amazing whats stored in our heads and recalled on occasion. Much cleverer than a computer.
Thank you all for your interesting suggestions and comments - though, YP, I worry about cats in Sheffield if they have footprints like these! I'm keen on the Asian elephant idea, Silverback, as I've always liked elephants and would quite like one in the garden. But if not an elephant, I do hope it's a Wolpertinger - do look at the helpful link that Katrin sent me.
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