Thankfulness…

When it comes to being thankful I would be amiss if I didn’t mention Walter.  He’s not exactly a new friend, he’s the young man I’ve talked with before while watching the sunrise at Aripeka.   But now we’ve exchanged names and phone numbers, and that’s because he has had a recent encounter with One-Foot Fred.  And he even took a picture!    Be still my heart!  I had mentioned Fred to him since he gets to a lot more sunrises in Aripeka than I do.  I told him that Fred used to be on the bridge with me every time I was there, but then he disappeared.  I don’t think I’d seen him for a year, but that includes time I wasn’t even in Florida.  So I asked Walter if he’d ever seen Fred and he hadn’t, but I did tell him that I’ve been told by several fishermen that Fred still comes around now and then.  So the minute Walter noticed that the heron he was watching only had one foot he knew it was Fred.  I had only watched him as he posed for me on the bridge, but Walter watched him fishing.  Fred would use his stub to take a step but would have to catch himself and balance as he landed on his other foot.  Walter was impressed with his obvious adaptation to his new reality.  Walter also mentioned that it’s probably lucky that herons stand in the shallow water and wait for lunch to come to them.  He was pretty impressed with old Fred.  I’m so happy to hear this news and know that Fred is okay, and so happy to have a picture also.  Thanks Walter!