Tuna for Dinner

     Bit by bit I'm learning about life in the high desert of New Mexico.  One of the things I've learned this fall is how much dogs and coyotes like tunas.  No, not the kind that comes in a can, though they do like that, but the kind that grows on prickly pear cactus.  

The purplish growths are the seed pods of the cactus, called by some, tuna.  

One day last week the dogs and I were out walking on our usual path in the open space.  I started noticing purple poop on the trail.  On closer examination I saw that it was filled with seeds.  This answered a question:  Does anything eat the tuna?  Evidently, coyotes do.  Down the path we went, then the dogs started stopping and rooting around near prickly pear plants, something they have learned the hard way to avoid.  Root, root, root.  Chomp, chomp. Evidently, dogs like the well ripened tuna too.