With a love of exploring nature compelling her, Kaydee Pickle set out to find “the exact location I believed the description of Dillard’s muskrat ‘stalking’ to have taken place. Eventually finding the right spot became the background of this piece.”
Pickle was inspired by the author’s affection for muskrats, and the extent to which she would wait, silent and unmoving, to observe her skittish mark going about its day. “Would I really have to wait as long, and be as still, as Annie Dillard to have any hope of actually ever seeing a muskrat in Tinker Creek?”