Cute as a Coot’s Patoot

Confession time. I’m in love with a coot. Two coots, actually. There is a mama Coot and baby Coot swimming in Echo Park Lake. Every day we walk there, when I get to a certain spot on the edge of the lake, Mama and Baby come swimming toward me.





Esmeralda likes them, too.



Coming from a gluten-free household, my breadcrumbs are not particularly enticing; they’re rice cracker crumbs. But this seems to be acceptable to the coots.



When I started feeding them, toward the end of June, Baby Coot couldn’t actually eat the crumbs. Mama had to pluck them out of the water and feed them to him.



But by the next visit, Baby was snatching the crumbs from Mama’s mouth. Baby doesn't look so fuzzy any more.



The next time, he was eating on his own.

And as of July 4th, he has learned to dive. And he is getting very shiny. He is also a lot less interested in rice cracker crumbs.



Or maybe it was because someone else had already fed them. Is my coot unfaithful? Is he leaving me for another crumb hustler? Stay tuned for the next episode of "As the Coot Turns."