waiting for the muse: Sandy's Society of Crow Appreciation

(above, a costume crow,
with real feathers, made
to wear on your shoulder
with your Ichabod Crane outfit.)

A Fable:

A Troublesome Crow seated herself on the back of a Sheep.
The Sheep, much against his will, carried her backward and forward
for a long time, and at last said, “If you had treated a dog in this way,
you would have had your deserts from his sharp teeth.”
To this the Crow replied, “I despise the weak and yield to the strong.
I know whom I may bully and whom I must flatter;
and I thus prolong my life to a good old age.”

A few posts ago I showed you a crow sculpture that was a tarted-up 1920's crow decoy. The image I found was a collection of several bird assemblages made by a Florida artist, Jim Mullan, who it seems doesn't have a website so we can't find him and rest at his feet adoringly. But we CAN do a search for crow decoys and come up with some interesting examples like these:

This one is called Crow-Mojo and the wings whirl in the breeze to attract crowds o' crows. Apparently that got old in the crow community so this next one was developed proving that crows, if they had hands, could probably pat their heads and rub their stomachs at the same time

These are some antique crow decoys I found online, the ones with prices are noted- quite different than the old 'regular' crow decoys made now!

$1800 for two, or they had a single for $950 if you're budgeting your crow dollars.

An eBay bargain starting at $38

$3800. This is the one I want, of course.

The minimalist version as roof adornment. Sorry, I don't remember the price, but trust me, we can't afford it.

All these decoys, old and new, are meant to fool crows into swarming right into your trap so they can be shot. This is unthinkable. What I would use them for instead is getting them to show off their crow-y personalities up close and personal. So, here are a few my own personal crow 'decoys' that I have stratigically placed around the house:

First, the latest acquisition. He seems to be named Humberto- regal above his silliness of costume.

The doorstop that lives on the back of the toilet. This is the first I noticed that it seems to make him pensive. Perhaps he needs a new home holding back a door as he was built to do. We all need to feel useful, afterall.