Hot night

It's a little too hot to fall sleep and also a precarious time of year for young animals.

Late last night I saw a tiny skunk in the middle of the road. It managed to find its way across. But this morning there was a perfect raccoon, in miniature, laying dead along the roadside open-mouthed. Not a hundred yards from there, a little fawn. Oh no, you think, and feel badly because you can't do anything that's going to make any difference to them. Further along, a morning runner pushes the corpse of a porcupine out of the middle of the road with a stick.

By 6 AM, the cows were already grazing. They stood bunched in close proximity. Before 8 AM, they were laying in the shade spaced the same way. Steam was beginning to rise out of the valley under the already hot sun.