CRITTERS

Central Ridge on the other side of Little Canyon

It reminded me of a scene out of “Blondie.” Blondie sits up in bed and says, “Dagwood! Dagwood! Wake up. I heard something downstairs. Get up and check. . .” whereupon a sleepy and bleary-eyed Dagwood gets up, finds the burglar (or not), and of course, raids the refrigerator before going back to bed, sometimes making a sandwich for the burglar, too.

Well, it wasn’t exactly like that. Mike would never raid the refrigerator. But I was awakened by quiet commotion accompanied by dog whines on the kitchen porch. “Mike,” I said. “Mike! Bess is doing something on the porch. I think “we” should check on it,” whereupon a very tired and disgruntled Mike got up to check the dogs. (I secretly delight in this – retribution for all the years I got up with the kids.)

Coming back to bed, a now wide-awake Mike reported that both dogs were working together to capture a wood rat behind his toolbox on the porch. He eventually went back to assist them so that we could all get some sleep, but it was not to be for Mike, who was wide awake the rest of the night. Ah! Such is life in the country. The neighbor’s noisy party or barking dog won’t bother you, but there are plenty of other nocturnal disturbances.

The other day as I sat in the living room, I looked out to see what appeared to be a chipmunk dancing along one of our raised beds. Surely not, I thought to myself. But, then I saw it again, sitting on the supports of Mike’s metal shed. The chipmunk was apparently taunting Bess, who was watching it closely. I expect that Bess knew what the chipmunk knew – that he/she could be under that shed before Bess made her first move. But, the stand-off gave me a chance to study it with the binoculars and confirm that it was indeed a chipmunk – apparently a rare sighting.

Then in the evening I just happened to look out the living room window again and catch sight of a bunny racing past the raised beds towards the barn. And as if to complete this pastoral scene, a doe was standing just outside the yard near the bramble bush watching the house – probably wary of Bess.

These pictures are of a doe we see every morning in Plank’s field. She lives in the draw just below, and she will disappear, always through the same bushes, as we get closer. I suspect she’s raising a fawn. And she might be the same doe that occasionally skirts around the farm yard, probably hoping for a drink from the pond without attracting attention.

 

 

The hummingbirds were slow to come in this year but appeared to be here in full force now. We do lose hummingbird momentum when we leave for a few days. And the hollyhocks are in full bloom, so they have something else to drink. KW