My high school sat right next to a dairy farm, thus the nickname “Cow Pie High.” There are certain phrases from high school that have blended with throwaway lines from popular movies of the time (I’m thinking of the ultimately quotable movie of my time, Caddyshack). Once, upon entering school with some friends during a winter snow storm, my friend John turned and looked behind us at the snow blown pasture and said in serious contemplation ”It would suck to be a cow.” That phrase caused giggles for the rest of the day, but I cannot count how many times that phrase has gone through my head in the decades since I heard it spoken. Indeed, it would suck to be a cow. Or a deer. Or a rabbit, etc. etc. etc.
This dumbly profound sentence ran through my head the other day, as I waited out a thunderstorm in my warm truck, listening to NPR and sipping coffee. I was waiting in the truck because I could do so, and I didn’t really feel like braving the torrential downpour outside. Besides, I had a large metal antennae to hold up to the sky, and even I know that isn’t a great idea in a thunderstorm (again, reference Caddyshack). After the rain slowed down and the lightening stopped, I did get out of the truck with all of my equipment, and I tracked down Clarabelle, who had weathered the storm at the top of a black oak tree. She seemed nonchalant about the whole business. She’s used to holding on tighter when things get rough. 
I was completely soacked from crashing through waist-high ferns, so i was in a hurry to get back to my warm office and change into some dry clothes. Driving through a recently selective-cut logged area, I spotted a Cooper’s hawk on a branch of a lonely tree. His tail was spread like a hand of cards, drying in the emerging sun. He had also weathered the storm, but he looked annoyed! I watched as he fluffed out the rest of his feathers, almost like a dog shaking water off his coat, hop-turned to face the other way, and slowly settled his feathers back into dignified order.
I drove back to the office, where I found my own set of dry clothing, made a hot cup of coffee, and settled in for the afternoon, happy to be human.
