Some years we don’t see any. This year we’ve had two sightings in two days. Saturday I saw the mom and baby while walking in a preserve about a mile from our house. Yesterday we were walking both dogs in Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. Judy and I saw the cat at about 50 yards. Henry saw it. Annie didn’t. We all paused to admire each other; except Annie, she was sniffing the ground for food. When we got up to where the cat had been, Henry got pretty excited sniffing the shrubbery where the cat had slipped into the underbrush. We held Henry back with the leash as he attempted to follow his prey into the undergrowth. The leash didn’t hold up so well an hour later. We had stopped to admire a flock of twenty chachalacas feeding on the ground. Henry watched them as long as he could stand, then suddenly went red-zone and broke the leash right off. Chachalacas are fun birds to chase. They’re about the size of chickens. Irresistible. Henry blew off into the brush, the happiest puppy on the planet, scattering birds and squirrels everywhere. He returned to his senses and came back within a minute or so. We stayed and watched the birds a little longer, but the chachalacas and squirrels chose to remain in the trees and scolding Henry until we left.
