Bugling Elks, and Alex and Joe

One of the very first people I met in Waco, Texas, in 1985 recently sent me an email that contained the following news:

“We recently bought and moved into the retirement home of our dreams. Backs up to the Tonto National Forest. We hear the elk bugling (it's mating season) at night. Also have mule deer, owls,hummingbirds and eagles galore."

I, of course, have been wondering how Mother would handle listening to the elks bugling in the middle of nowhere. I smile at the thought.

I wonder what Wikipedia says about the bugling of elks. Not much. But it does offer this:

“During the mating period known as the rut, mature bulls compete for the attentions of the cows and will try to defend females in their harem. Rival bulls challenge opponents by bellowing and by paralleling each other, walking back and forth. This allows potential combatants to assess the others antlers, body size and fighting prowess. If neither bull backs down, they engage in antler wrestling, and bulls sometimes sustain serious injuries. Bulls also dig holes in the ground, in which they urinate and roll their body. The urine soaks into their hair and gives them a distinct smell which attracts cows.”

I wonder what Mother would think if she stepped out on the deck to water her basil crop and observed some patriarchal resizing of an elk harem. I smile at the thought.

She, of course, would prod the dogs into action. “Elk! Look! An elk is in the back yard! Help!”

Seattle, the master of the lair, would give us her “the look” over the shoulder as she walked into another room. An elk ain’t no squirrel.

They remain vigilant, of course, for any signs of Joe Biden or Alex Trebek. But it can be tricky and you have to keep a firm grip on the facts.

Joe is two years younger than Alex. Most Boston Terriers would assume the opposite.

Alex was born and raised in Ontario. Joe was born and raised in Scranton, PA, moving to Delaware as a 10 year old. Both of the female Boston Terriers know that Alex and Joe could physically disguise themselves. The voices and accents may be the only clues they get. So they practice by listening carefully to the speech patterns of Mother and Nah.

They especially zero in on the constant bugling of “Such a nice boy!”

Dead giveaway for Joe Biden being in the house. The girls remain firm in their beliefs that no one would sincerely say that to Theo, and, if those words are ever uttered at 6605 S. 77th E. Ave, then big, I mean really big, trouble is afoot.

Joe was first elected to the Senate in 1972. Alex took over Jeopardy in 1984. The girls want to know everything that happened during those 12 years. Think of Mother graduating from high school and giving birth to her first child in that time span. There are many details that have vanished about the early Biden and Trebek years, even more so as time passes by. Help a dog out with intelligence gathering, would you?