This is a fable relating to pattern recognition and making useful
decisions in nature.
The animal, Zima is a young alpha-female coyote whom I and my neighbor
adopted about a year ago. She is a careful observer of the natural
environment and exerts power and control over dogs and other living
creatures by understanding nature better than they do.

This morning I was about to go down to the river to retrieve the
day's water supply when Zima arrived. Upon asking for a bone,
she received her morning rations, but was apparently thirstier
than she was hungry. So she followed me down to the river, bone
in mouth.

Upon reaching the river and wading in, Zima discovered that she
couldn't take a drink with the bone in her mouth. What to do, what
to do. She decided to lay the bone down in the river and retrieve
it after she had slaked her thirst. The river being swollen and
turbulent at this time of year picked up the bone and started
carrying it downstream. She chased after it and retrieved it.
This happened several times before she learned that she could
place it downstream from a rock and it would stay put. Lesson 1
in physics : fluid dynamics and turbulent flow.

Having had her fill of the river water, it was time to retrieve
the bone from the river bed. At first Zima thought she could just
stick her nose in and pick it up. But she soon discovered after
several tries that it wasn't where it appeared to be. Lesson 2:
refraction and speed of light in a medium with index of refraction
higher than air.

Having realized the bone was not where it appeared, she tried picking
it up with her front paws. She had seen people do this enough, but
for her it was not possible. Next she tried pushing the bone out
of the water with her paw, this seemed surprise her. The bone was
too light, when she did this on land, the bone was heavy, but under
water a light tap would move it. Even so she was unable to retrieve
the bone by pushing it for no matter where she pushed it the
bone was still in the water. Lesson 3: Archimedes Principle, Dynamics
and Levers.

Clearly at her wits end, she started to walk away from the river. But
then had a thought. What if the bone wasn't where it appeared to be,
but was still there. She went back to the river, and after a moment
of contemplating stuck her entire head under water and picked up
the bone. Coming up sputtering, but happy with her bone in mouth,
she left and river and received appropriate kudos for solving
the problem. After which life went on much as usual.
Lesson 4: Air is breathable, water is not.

MORAL: Learning about nature is equal parts observation, trial and
error, error recognition and pattern recognition. But don't expect
kudos to last for long.