Crawdad

I was out with the clients from Robertson Place for our daily walk and I usually like to take them up and around Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park.

We were on the trail around the backside of the lake, almost to the falls on Strawberry Hill when I noticed something on the ground. I've always been able to pick out living things or moving things out of the corner of my eye. I don't know if it's energetic or just a visual/physical eye thing but in any case, I often get to see stuff that a lot of people don't usually see.

And this was one moment where the clients did not see and I had to stop them from walking forwards, as the eye-catching object was right in the middle of the path and was about to be severely trampled.

In the middle of the path was a crawdad. You know, a crayfish. Okay, people, TINY LOBSTER!!

You know what I'm talking about now? He/She/It was just right smack in the middle of the dirt path, unfortunately looking similar to the color of the dirt, but just moving along, slow as you please.

However, as our shadows fell upon it, it reared up and raised its claws to us in a very threatening manner (well, probably in its little nervous brain stem).

I was so impressed by that. This little creature posturing and threatening towards us, hundreds of times its size. It didn't run or shrink down to be unseen but brashly waving its claws up at us.

The clients stopped and watched it, some with amusement, some with apathy, but all with respect. "Wow, he really thinks he can take us on! That's cool!", "He's got some balls!", "Don't wanna cross him!", and were generally very fascinated and curious about this fearsome creature before us.

I maneuvered in behind the crawdad to try and pick him up so we could get "him" off the path. It was a bit difficult as he kept shifting around to face my hand. I'm no dummy, he had some healthy pair of pincers there, and I wasn't going to get pinched in front of my clients. Finally, I was able to grasp him gently by the back tail and we carefully transported him to the falls to leave in the shallows of the rocks.

For us, it was a good experience and the clients were talking about it all the way home. For him, I'm sure he was going "What the hell? I just left here!"