Black Jack's Story, The tale of a Scalawag

[Keith Perkins]

And I hope as I write this you are writing the next installment.

[Second Hand Pat]

A neighbor had a sister who rescued turtles from construction sites. The sister needed a site to release a large female turtle and she called and asked us if we could accommodate this turtle.

We have some wonderful turtle habitat and said of course, bring her on over. The sister Becky also wanted to meet Black Jack. I told her Jack sometimes made himself invisible to some people but to please bring the turtle over and we would see about Jack.

So Becky brings the turtle over and we are making her comfortable in one of the available borrows and here comes Jack. He took right to Becky. Becky was wearing a brightly colored cloth hair band and Jack tried to steal it by landing on her head and trying to jerk it right out of her hair.

Becky removed the band from her hair and was going to offer it to Jack. I told her if she wanted to keep it then she better hide it. So she puts it in her shirt pocket. Well, Jack was bound and determined to acquire that hair band. So he nonchalantly flies by and grabs it right out of her pocket and keeps right on flying. Now I’m embarrassed and ticked, darn thieving crow.

Becky is laughing and I’m fussing at the crow. Gosh, it was so funny. I tried trading a variety of sticks, rocks and even food, but Jack wanted to keep that hair band. No trading that day. I never saw that hair band after that day. He had a hidey hole somewhere I never found. Oh geez, life with a crow.

[Second Hand Pat]

We were boarding my daughter’s horse Nautica at this time and a fellow boarder Joyce was considering building her barn on her newly acquired property. Tom and I had finished our barn the prior year and Joyce wanted to stop by and take a look see at my barn for ideas building her own. She also wanted to meet Black Jack.

Whenever Diana or I went outside, Black Jack would invertible follow us around looking for attention, a handout or just to play. So of course Black Jack would join me in the barn whenever I went to feed or just fool with the horses.

Now the barn was pretty much Jack’s space. He could fly through and in the barn. Being a Florida barn it was very open to allow for air circulation during the summer months. Jack would land on top of the doors or sides of each stall. The stall doors were the metal door you could buy from Tractor Supply and were the sliding type. Whenever I opened a stall door I always had to be mindful of where Jack was, I didn’t want to catch his foot in the door.

So Joyce comes over one Saturday morning and we start exploring the barn, both the inside and outside. I was telling her the story of how I designed the barn and some of the building process. Of course Jack was following us around and being his generally pesky self. Joyce starts asking questions about the stall doors and I demonstrate opening one of the doors and checking to ensure Jack was out of the way. I mentioned about being careful about Jack with the doors.

After talking for a while longer Joyce was getting ready to leave and she decided to open the stall door one more time. As the door slid back I heard a very angry caw, looked up and the door had captured Black Jack’s foot. I quickly grabbed the door and closed it, releasing Jack’s foot and off he flew still cawing angrily. Now Joyce was very concerned embarrassed and apologetically but she rather quickly left.

That was fine with me, I needed to go find Jack is see how bad the damage was. Well it took a while to find the silly bird, remember he was free roaming by this time. Actually I cawed to him and he finally answered. I think he was quite mad at me. I was able to entice him back to his cage with food and caught him.

His nail was pretty much destroyed by the door and I was able to clip it off. The bone in the toe seemed fine and the skin was not broken. I called the vet and described what happen. He suggested keeping some goo on the end of the toe while it healed. He did warn that toe might swell and it did for about a week.

The toe healed fine but the nail never did grow back. It didn’t seem to bother Jack and he did finally forgave me.

[Jason K.]

author/pet vet... nice.

[Second Hand Pat]

Jay, with horses you learn how to do a lot for yourself. Even give shots.




Next installment post 49 (my starting point for next installment).

[dadecountyalan]

pat this story is amazing. to be honest im not a big reader. i only read things that have to do with cars and sports.


but i am hooked on this story!!!!!!!

[Second Hand Pat]

Alan, glad Jack was able to capture your interest.

[RWD HERO]

Pat, is this your bird?!?!
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/02/flo....html?npt=NP1#

[Second Hand Pat]

You mean Black Jack?? The link is a hawk, not sure which type of hawk. Black Jack was a crow. Now I do have a pair of copper hawks which nest behind the barn. The hawk in the link could be a coppers hawk but hard to tell.

[Keith Perkins]

I have a pair of bald eagles that fish in the river I live near.

[Second Hand Pat]

Fun to watch them fish? You ever heard the eagles call to each other. They sound like a squeaky door. Most undignified for a large bird of prey.

[Keith Perkins]

There just sitting in the tops of tall trees watching for fish. Haven't seen one of them actually get one. Took a woman that was here from Idaho to look for one of her beloved cardinals, saw the eagle instead. The first I ever saw floated about 50 - 60 feet over my head while I was fishing in northern WI. At the same place while I was hanging over the side of a boat trying to retrieve a sinking fishing plug off a the rope of a foam buoy so I had to have the top of my head in the water I had one watch me from the top of a pine tree like what the heck is he doing? Heard one kill a heron there too, or more like heard a heron get killed by one. Seen one grab something out of a ditch about 25 feet away from me as I went past it in the car, no, maybe 20 feet. That one was close.

[Second Hand Pat]

Keith, sound like you have a fair amount of eagles in your area. I have seen eagles grab smaller birds on wing while driving to work. It happen a couple of times so suspect that particular eagle developed it's own hunting technique.

[Keith Perkins]

Cool. They haven't found a nest in our county but I've got to believe that pair has one somewhere nearby. There are two really good spots I can think or where it might be. One you can't get to and the other would be tough. That one I'd like to check with a canoe.

[Second Hand Pat]

Sounds like a fun trip via canoe even if you do not find the nest. If you heard that squeaky door noise you found the nest. Take your fishing pole.