Strange funny or unusual animal stories

[ronnewmexico]

I have many.

The purpose of this thread is to recount any.
I will describe to start off one, that to me, is a bit funny and a bit strange....

In the wilderness tramping around a bit going to a particular place to meditate and sing dharma songs, this above or just about tree line, cliffs peaks and such, which was around 12,000 feet in these parts, I ran into a bunch of mountain sheep.

Seeing them I did as I am inclined to do just went around them a bit, they seeing me and me seeing them neigher being it appeared all that impressed.
I went then to where I was going.
Upon return to my camp I found them all, about 15 or so at my camp, just standing around to no purpose.
I then went there and also stood around to no purpose watching them to see what they were up to.
After a little while i got tired and sat down. I noticed most of them also then sat down.
Well....me with my brilliant intellect said to myself...are they copying me?. Consider perhaps it was like the sixth day of a seven day retreat in this place and I was taking notice of such things in that fashion.

Well said brilliant me....now sitting... perhaps I close my eyes and they will then also copy me and close their eyes?

I did and they did.... quite to my amusement.
After that, while doing that.... passed by closely on trail by my camp a couple of hikers backpack and all.
I cannot imagine what they thought...was I a shepherd in the wilderness forest in this place? Was this a place all slept....or what not.
I cannot imagine coming upon a group one person and 15 goats sleeping in the middle of the day like that in the forest....coming upon that. They nor me were disturbed in our repose by that.

A coyote yelped after a while and they all ran quickly away. I felt a bit of regret that perhaps I had not followed them in that run.
After that for the first time in my house of residence which is by national forest but perhaps 75 or so remote from that place that summer and at much lower altitude, I did see one mountain sheep of the same sort getting water from a place I put water. Never before or since have I seen that type of animal here or anywhere in these areas, though I have lived here many years. I had a neighbor take a picture it was so strange. She thought it strange as well.

So strange and amuseing I found that.
What is your story..I assume there are many... cats dogs others.
JUst for fun.....

[Aemilius]

Nice story, thank you!

Some time in the year 1990 I was doing an Amitabha Puja alone on a sea shore. Out of the blue sky there landed two mallards who sat there right beside me till the end of the puja. They abruptly flew away again.

[Kyosan]

ronnewmexico;

I guess the mountain sheep saw you as a friend and weren't afraid of you. Are mountain sheep usually afraid of people?

I have a story. It isn't something that happened to me, but something I saw on the Internet and thought was cute. It's about Conan the chihuahua who preys with the Zen monks.

http://www.paghat.com/empireofthechihua ... n-zen.html

[ronnewmexico]

Ah more stories...similiar to that mntioned above I had occasion to be doing my meditational practice in the wilderness on a steep sloap at night.
Flew in and sat down right behind me (about three feet or so)...was a very larges owl . Three feet or more tall.
Sat there for the duration. Left when I left. Did he suspect I was also a owl?

Cows(cattle)..strangely enough it must be mentioned..... one perhaps does this thing of singing dharma to cattle in wilderness areas I may frequent(I suspect few do that thing).
Upon doing so once(with a particularly loud voice that day)....many cattle in the area, about 20 or so came running up and strangely enough stood in a line of sorts in front of me. Having a good old time they seemed to be, happy I'd guess. Me being of course no lama or monk or any some such.... it did however distinctly remind me of peoples waiting perhaps for a kata to be given by a lama(standing in lines along a road). I stayed a bit longer there and sang some more.
They did not leave me either as well....following me many miles(which is unusual for cattle in the wilds)to my eventual place of camp.
Left them behind... as I was speedier, but they found me where I lay at night and said a hello with their mooing.

And another...cows again. As is my tendency singing mantra to cattle in the wilds. In one place I did such and left them to set up my camp. NOne followed me
My camp was a area a bit enclosed by trees brush branches and such, about 30 by 30 square. I set up camp and went to find and filter water.
UPon my return I found the entire area of my camp filled with cattle. Stuffed they were in my little area. Not could one more be fit in I suspect.
And what is most remarkable did they not defecate nor urinate in my area. As good guests they just nosed around a bit I suspect, a few of my things had been knocked around a bit, but no damage.

So more stories...but true ones...I have many. Perhaps you will read this and enjoy, and enjoy someone is singing dharma mantra songs to beasts in the wild as well..... perhaps.

[ronnewmexico]

Ah..another one.

Today 15 or so F out. Cold wind fog of ice crystal. Ice on water I provide for birds and other animals. Many a day is ice frozen but this day...many many birds waiting it seems outside..for me hmmmm.

First thing I be doing of course before seeing the birds or knowing of their presence in any manner...my first intention of the day is to add water to frozen place..

so did they know or sense I would be doing such...on other day frozen water they are not there..and the time is the same...or perhaps just coincidence :I suspect the first. But I am biased by my experience to this thing we perceive as animal.
I am strange as these animal stories and animal things I see at times I expect. But have no fear for me...I am used to it and the way I see things, and they perhaps are used to me.

Is it the water to birds or mantra I sing to cows..perhaps. Birds flying around today, seeming happy, some not even drinking, but just playing around as cows did when I sing mantra to them.....I suspect them to have a notion...;.a notion someone or other is caring for them....they sense that....and they become happy...it reminds them of being small and with their mothers...I suspect that is the case.
That is my personal opinion.

[Dechen Norbu]

If only the animal realm was as happy as you imagine, Ron... those are more poetic views than the crude reality of it, which, of course, is much less entertaining.
It's a battle ground, filled with ignorance, fear, anxiety, primitive drives and suffering. Only fleeting moments of a certain sense of well being, clouded by torpor and lack of mental clarity. The deeper you realize this, the biggest will be your compassion for these beings. Projecting our feelings and emotions upon them is just a way to feel better about the world. There's nothing idyllic or romantic about the life of animals. Sadly, this is how it is.

[muni]

"is caring for them....they sense that....and they become happy"

Peaceful mind. Seeing/hearing... through interconnectedness, so appaering in mind...our true nature can be discovered.
Then mind turning to Lama Gursam his examples.

"Through connection the selfless flow of love can arise from itself, embracing animals like they are". Something like that I ever heard.

[muni]

...compassion for these beings.

Generosity by protection of fear... Paramitas.

[ronnewmexico]

DN....as muni expresses quite sufficiently and well...my view on the interconnectedness of things expressed by my observations of the animal world are not singular nor considered naive by many others....though this is certainly not a majority view. LOve, yes feelings have a effect upon how animals take us to be.

You are of course welcome to your opinion and glad I am to here it.
The animal world..... here is my opinion....we see and here in it what mainly asserts our great ignorance that things be seperate and individual.
Neither things nor animals be thusly.
Spirit world I find this be the case as well. And have started a thread on ghost stories a bit ago

But it is true in all things to include the inanimate.
AS our nails and hair are produced in relation to a aware thing such is matter inanimate perceived.
Nothing is singular nor absolute and the presentation of things always thusly has a window or opening within it that expresses this.
Not obvious at times other times it may be.
Inexplicable animal behavior may at times represent this window.

[ronnewmexico]

Here is another story I have heard of.
Not in any manner to compare mself to this individual in any manner, I was perhaps as a flea on his shoe .

The 16th Karmapa was giving a teaching and visit to a place which was similiar to a american mall.
Within this was a pet shop.
The karmapa did visit with the animals playing with them a bit.

quite inexplicably witnesses describe...you perhaps know how animals are in pet shops, in malls, always very excited and going here and there....the animals when the karmpapa left did all become quite most sleeping.....


So another story, though I didn't witness it perhaps some here may have. Certainly it is not a unheard story.

Elephants in Thailand I think it was just before the great tsunami they ran up hills to escape the flood....If they simply heard a thing of noise in that tusnami that we humans could not hear....how would they associate that with a flood...that noise and why then not fun just around breaking into things(if fear only it was producing)...but up hill away from tusnami...why?

Biological imperitive genetic...oh this happened in the past the ones that survived had this traite so they are as that.....tusnami occurs in not that great a fashion to creat that imperitive..


it is quite unexplainable......but we disregard it and others..any that conflict with our conventional ways of looking at things to my opinion.
Spirit things of that sort...disregarded as well even when striking us right in the face in a way.

[muni]

Personally read this: "In the Drikung, the dharma protector is also Achi. So in Drikung Achi is the female protector and she is one of the most important dakinis. She was born as a human being, but with special qualities. Her mother did not have any pains during pregnancy, but instead felt happy and joyful. Even during delivery there was no pain. When she was small she would recite Tara's mantra and she was a very compassionate person. She showed signs of realization and was fond of animals. When she dies, her pet animals entered the rainbow body as well".

http://www.lamagursam.org/dakini.html

[Dechen Norbu]

Your tales are entertaining...

[ronnewmexico]

Yes muni...with your unconscious wisdom...you find me out.....

So peoples may have varying connections for varying reasons. I heard someone once say it is not that things are changed but what we see (in things) that changes

So now a strange story with no direct application whatsoever.
In a place in the wild once, I got a notion to climb to the top of where I was which was above treeline. So climbing and climbing I suspect in a place where no human could be expected to be ever, I did.
I then came upon a creature, one I had never seen before. (I have to backround) I have been spending much much time in wilderness at times, in the last several years tallied up(which I did once) it totaled about a month and a half, each year in such places. So needless to say, as I am in these places with eyes open, I see animals and things of all sorts, and know a bit, what is normal and what is not.

Anyway this animal was as a deer but with a unusually small head. And the color of the fur on its head was quite dark and the eyes front set as is a predator.
But no predator was this as it walked as perhaps a elk would do with that type of gate. I expect it was very young not newborn but seemed to be close to that.

So...what was that. A hybrid perhaps that was born a cross between two species or some thing like that..I don't know, but strange it was.

Ths overall place to my opinion is what one may call a haunted place. Very many strange things and occurances happen there, that I and others have witnessed....some would say this place is a glitch a crease in the reality of things a place of entrance perhaps for things of another sort. I stumbled upon it years ago. So is it connected to that?

Strange it is..this is a strange story. I never saw it again though I did not go to that exact spot where I saw it again.
The stories I describe are all factual, I am not drawn to fits of fantasy of form. Ohters stories as I recount, I expect they may be but cannot state so completely.

[muni]

"I heard someone once say it is not that things are changed but what we see (in things) that changes"
In this, as far as I understand I see a lesson of interconnection.
Story:

Once in a life or so, after a visit to a nearby monastery I walked happely down while looking around where my friends were. I passed along three huge yaks and then saw the friends who were looking to me. I walked to them and when arrived they said: "You are just amazing!"
I had no idea what they were talking about. They said: "We tried to pass them in silence but they ran in a speed away, so lucky but you are passing them without fear and they don't run away!" "How so? Why fear?" I asked. Well those are certainly wild yaks! As wild yaks can be very dangerous, when they said so, I almost did in my pants of fear. What I saw was changed, me and the other animals turned in two pictures, "they" opposed to "me"...WAAH! A bit later we got to know they werent' wild at all, just scary.

Maybe thinking so, mind wasn't stressed but calm and temporary open with the yaks just a spot in the whole picture of temporary 'relax' mind, i had no oportunity to cling to anything, the yaks reacted calm in such openess.
And that is a lesson by interaction my dog repeated for me by reacting happely calm when chanting mantra, tame own mind, human!..then I follow automatically!

[ronnewmexico]

Certainly agree...our expectations of result like as not dictate the result we will find about most all the time. Very rarely are our expectations surprised

Animals being hunted by others and human of course they sense fear anger and those things, as well as the inverse. They must know who not to run away from as welll.

Wolves (I read in a book once by a person who lived with wolves), he said....he witnessed wolves when presented to human, would be able by no discernable manner, be able to determine who was sick or injured, not by walk or breath or any other things, necessarily, basically just sense it.
Wolves of course by preference hunt the sick or injured, it requireing less to kill and eat them,

He noticed once a person being paId very close attention to by some wolves, he was acquainted to. Noteing this was the behavior the exhibited when they found a sick or injured animal, he wondered why. This person exhibited no such fault.
Later on to discover this person was indeed suffering from a chronic medical condition that was not apparent by observation but was present nevewrtheless....

So another story From book this time. To compliment your excellent one.

[ronnewmexico]

Another one..thinking of this one while on forest trail in snow and mist from breath and sweat, from me, turning to ice, all over me and my coat as coat of ice... and dogs breath also turning to ice upon their coats of fur...singing mantra...vajrasattava...16 degrees or so F.

Had one dog, a dog that was to be killed by his owner, I took it so it would not be. His owner.... having perhaps a baser nature and the dog reflecting perhaps that....the dog when I started signing mantra near him..went about exactly stone deaf at that time..never to recover.

Curiously the two dogs at the present time..both actually favor mantra and will especially come close... the smaller one, to be near when I sing it.
Both seem to get upset if I do it and they are not near it.

Curious.

[White Lotus]

animals tend to hide their talents. i have found dogs to be just as aware as people and once i drew a small circle on a piece of paper in front of a green fly, it got into the most unusual prostration. quite unnatural.

i have also seen faeries on two occasions, three different types, people like, reptile like and half rodent half human with a sword... at night under a large tree and in broad daylight. only about a foot tall.

very unusual wouldnt you say.

best wishes, Tom.

[ronnewmexico]

Yes..very unusual..our world is plastic not solid it seems, bends and flows.

Another one...I have a outdoor cat who visits me. Not always but particularly in snow or rainy times. All the wild cats around here have a very short life as the coyotes hawks and Owls find them and eat them. This one cat is completely black long haired and for many years has managed to elude those intent upon her demise. It is now I guess, old in cat years.

Anyway...I tried my closeing eyes thing on this cat a bit ago(as in the first post). The cat seeing me closeing eyes, as if sleeping, did so also.
That is a bit curious, but more curious is, after that, for a while..... the cat when it came around and looked at my eyes, its eyes would start to close, even though mine not.

I'm guessing most animals of that sort, (cats dogs deer cows elk)..they are looking always somewhat for that time when first born a mother did care for them keep them warm, and see them sleep...just conjecture but it seems that way.

Here is a human woman who just passed away, who seemingly kept humans warm and peaceful as a mother would...all whe could....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Hsu_Chih

[catmoon]

Has it occurred to you that perhaps this cat is looking for a home?

[ronnewmexico]

Yes...it be absolutely true I am a incredibly stupid person and that over the span of ten or so years has never occured to me.

It is a wild cat. It will not come close to humans. Cats develope in that way generally they don't change.
I have a indoor cat and I think it is a bit confused as to me what i am which is why it comes around.
I give food to dogs outside and it sees that, and will then occasionally accept a bit of food. It smells cat and hears cat inside.
It marks my door with its sent by peeing on the door, which female cats don't do to my knowledge...so I think it is a bit confused about itself and me.

Thinking this is its territory but wanting not a part of me as human. Seeing me obviously as human it wants no part of me. Seeing me perhaps as cat it does a bit if I am not obtrustive with my humanness....

Cats dogs deer goats whatever they I think want to see others as they are so they may be friends of a sort. So if we are not obtrusive with our appearence as human by scent way of moving or other thing they associate with human I think they find it easy to take us as they are, of their kind.
that is my guess

A coyote in dead of night(3 nights ago) on trail when I and dogs howled, it did as well,,,, very close by. Setting, and as coyotes are, normally not participating in human things.... fearing them....that coyote took me and dogs a bit as coyote...another but still coyote...suchly why it participated in the howl...they hunt in part with howl of coyote(a very errie sound)...scaring animals like rabbits... so one howls it runs a certain way...another coyote then just waits for the rabbit to run their way in response to howl.

So I think that transference of assumption is not all that rare. One example only. Animals of this sort...naturally I think they incline towards that. To find other as they are, rather than as not....if we give them the chance.... by no obtrusive actions or forms. Humans, perhaps they are the same way a bit.

To my opinion predated animals can perceive predators busy minds, and perhaps the tales some tell.... of the buddha throwing down the garments of royality when he left the palace and entered the forest and accepting the clothes of a hunter(a hunter having to hunt with a quiet mind)....may have some significance other than of just clothes. But only some have heard that story I guess. But true nevertheless the best hunters must hunt with a quite mind prey.
Some say other stories on what he wore.

Others the predators..perhaps a bit I'd say. Not so they may not think themselves, it being so strong and present.... but a bit perhaps, they know when one is akin to them, senseing it. But just conjecturee is that. Most busy, human a bit busy dog coyote, least busy cow or deer sort of like that.
Throw this away it is of no use to you

Not words but with pictures and formed inclinations thought to them.