This time of year, walking from the parking lot to the door of our office building offers a mild aerobic workout as one dodges goose poop droppings. The geese love the "Holy Donut," our perfectly circular building with a massive green space in the center, and they make it their home every winter and spring. When leaving work the other day, our feathery tennants were blocking the sidewalk. Despite my second degree black belt, I was not prepared to take on these feisty birds so I chose a different exit route. Yes, they scare me.
As I proceeded cautiously to my minivan, I envisioned the geese as a group of thugs, hanging out on the corner, flapping their wings/arms around in a threatening manner, occasionally squawking/shouting something rude. And just like with a gang of thugs, a scared little suburban soccer mom like me crosses to the other side of the street to avoid confrontation.
This mental picture of geese as a gang of troublemakers, started me thinking about other animals in whose behavior I see a human counterpart. (For those of you preparing for the SATs, the big fancy word for giving animals human traits is anthropomorphism. Write that down.) There are the ones we've all heard before:
- Penguins as waiters in tuxedos
- Owls as bookish, wise academics
- Primates as nit-picking moms (See my Itchy, Itchy, Scratchy, Scratchy post)
- Snakes as lawyers...(apologies to my lawyer friends)
But I thought of some others:
- Meerkats = toddlers standing up in a crib, refusing to nap for fear of missing something
- Warthogs = body builders
- Hippopatumous = Navy Seals
- Crabs = Teenagers (defensive, refusing to make eye contact, trying to get away from you)
So what have I missed? Which animals remind you of us crazy humans?
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