Catch As Cat Can

                Don blushed as Lottie's eyes darted about. How would she ever extricate Diego from Harry? She wanted to ask him to accompany her to a huge alumni fund-raising dinner and dance, but he was glued to Harry. She believed Harry would look much less attractive f he could see her covered in grease as she repaired her ancient tractor. Harry was just too butch.

                "What's a peel - ?" Diego smiled, groping for the next syllable.

                "Pileated woodpecker." Fair Haristeen's deep voice finished the word."The largest woodpecker in America, close to twenty inches. you've seen the Woody Woodpecker cartoons?"

                "Yes." Diego laughed.

                "They're based on the pileated woodpecker, which has a brilliant red crest and red mustache as well as a distinctive loud call. Woody Woodpecker borrowed a bit of that, too."

                "Can one see such a bird?" Thomas asked.

                "Actually, you can. They don't hide. And they fly in an odd manner." Fair, as a vet, held the floor, which he liked."They flap a few times, gaining speed rapidly, then fold their wings flat to their sides and zoom like a rocket. You'll hear them before you see them.

                They're noisy."

                "Rapping into dead trees echoes in the woods. Fair's right. It's loud." BoomBoom was glad they'd steered away from Roger O'Bannon's demise. She'd felt a bit detached about it as he moved in a different circle. But when Lottie brought up the subject of Roger, BoomBoom decided she was both stupid and vain.

                "They eat ants in the trees." Harry smiled at the two visitors."You fellows don't really want to know about woodpeckers, do

                you?"

                "I do. I'm an amateur naturalist. North America has many un-

                usual animals."

                Jim Sanburne strode by, clapping Fair on the back."Going coon hunting tomorrow? Jack Ragland's bringing out Red Cloud."

                "Red Cloud?" Diego was thoroughly enjoying himself, as this really was different from Embassy Row.

                "Fabulous hound, brother, fabulous hound. Won about everything there is to win in this country in hunt trials." Jim's voice carried over me room.

                "Like foxhunting?" Diego asked curiously.

                "Oh, you don't want to go coon hunting. It's so country." Lottie rolled her eyes.

                Jim Sanburne cleared his throat."Music." The one word explained coon hunting to the locals. Jim loved the sound of the hounds, those deep, high, and middling voices. It was music.

                Lottie grimaced."You can break your ankle running around in the dark."

                "That's what flashlights are for." Harry found Lottie as welcome as prickly heat.

                "Women coon hunt?" Thomas wondered.

                "Yes. Anyone can go so long as the hound owners invite them. It's not like foxhunting where an engraved card is sent out. You know?" Thomas nodded that he was familiar with foxhunting so Harry continued."People can hunt one hound or two, called a brace. They can even hunt coon with a pack, it's up to the hunter or hunters. They'll often run their hounds together so the sound is better and oh, how the sound carries at night. It will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck."

                "What happens when you find the raccoon?" Diego thought he'd like to see this unique Southern practice.

                "Coon climbs up a tree, sits there, and looks at you. You can shoot him down or leave him be. I leave the coon alone so I have the pleasure of his or her acquaintance another time." Jim folded his arms across his chest, then added, "Never sporting to kill a female, especially in spring. She might have babies back home."

                "Ah, yes." Diego smiled.

                "Does one have to pay to participate?" Thomas wanted to go.

                "Not at all, brother, not at all. Tell you what, I'll call Jack right now and ask him if you all can come along tomorrow night. What out you, Harry? Fair?"

                They nodded yes.

                "You'll hate it," Lottie declared.

                "I'm going, too." BoomBoom, for all her perfect fingernails, clothes, etc., was a country girl, after all.

                "All right. Jack should have been here tonight along with his life, Joyce, but when I told him it was white tie he begged off. He id if I put a gun to his head maybe he'd wear a monkey suit- actually, Joyce would be the one to make him do it-but he's not wearing tails." Jim's deep laugh rumbled."Tell you one thing, the an can hunt. Wife can, too. And gentlemen, I'll bring along a little something to cut the night's chill, a little something we do better in .e mountains than they do anywhere else."

                "Better keep your voice low." Fair winked."Cooper's right bend you."

                The deputy was talking to Tracy and Miranda and turned when he heard her name."I didn't hear a thing."

                "Good. Always thought a deaf woman would be an advantage." m winked.

                "You mean dumb, don't you? One who can't talk." BoomBoom inked back.

                "Is that what I meant?"

                "Sexist pig." Harry stuck her finger in Jim's stomach.

                "Awful. You can dress me up but you can't take me out. Come ) think of it, I'm not out. This is my home." Jim roared with laughter, then shambled off to the telephone.

                "How can he say that?" Lottie fumed.