The rat I called “Oscar” was very cautious.  He lived under our concrete porch.  I would watch for him from our large living room window.  He would dash out five feet and feed on the spilled sunflower seed from our feeder overhead.  He would only spend a few seconds feeding and immediately dash back to the safety of his entrance.

 

He would sometimes share the space with the squirrels.  Once he actually briefly rubbed noses with a squirrel and then there was a brief tousle and both creatures fled the scene.  Sometimes he chases the squirrels away.  I never watched a rat so closely.  I have seen mice before but this is the first I have ever seen a rat.  I am concerned where he will go if we block his openings.

I decided to visit my creek.  Half the time or more it is dry.  We have been getting some rain and I glanced down in the water and saw a ?frog disappear under a rock.  That was a first.  It is not unusual for toads to be found in our front yard.  Sometimes I even find toads in our garage.  That was the first time I ever saw a frog in that tiny creek.

I am going to vanquish my winter blues. It is too much self–indulgence. My pets love me (and my wife). And that is enough. My favorite dog, Tilla, ‘adores’ me, in the words of my daughter. I did nothing to deserve all that. And that is an incomplete list of the seven cats and two dogs who each love me in their own way. My pets do not care what I do or am. And my wife does not care about the degree I do not have, or job for that matter.

We had a visit by a doe last summer. We spotted her from our kitchen window. I had never seen one in our backyard. Maybe she was attracted by the fruit of the mulberry tree. Several times we spotted the doe around the tract of woods adjacent to our property so I can only surmise it was living there. It was very unusual to see a deer so close to our house. And we saw the doe several times around that tract of land the last few months.

I had several encounters with creatures near my house. First I ran over a box turtle not hitting it in the road and then stopped and checked on it. Someone must have hit it not too long ago. It was dead. The red blood was still fresh under it. I did not want any car hitting it again so I kicked it to the side of the road. It was about five inches long and must have seen a few years.

Last week I walked into my den and to my surprise there was a bird flying around it frantically trying to get out. That was a mystery to me how it flew by us without us first seeing it (through the open garage door). First I gave up the idea of trapping it. Finally I opened one window and released the screen window and it flew out. I think it was a house wren.

Today’s encounter was in my car. A wild turkey hit the front of my car and made it across the road wings flapping wildly. I passed that spot several minutes later and it was gone. I must have stunned it. It was no longer in that spot.

You never know what creature you will see next. I live on the edge of country.

Cool Hand Luke

Author: siggy

Cool hand Luke I have had for thirteen years. She is a scrawny black female cat someone gave me. I never had a cat that long. She sleeps on one of my pillows above my head. She likes to run through doors and is the only cat to go outside. She comes to me for “hugs”. You don’t own a cat: they own you. She is a sweet cat that does not get along too well with our other cats. Sometimes she will spend hours on her pillow. It is comforting to know she is sleeping nearby.

Tilla will periodically jump on my bed as I enter that room just so he can get my attention. He is one uninhibited and affectionate dog. After I leave my bedroom he will immediately jump off. He loves my hugs. He and I have a very special relationship. He is my favorite dog and usually sleeps at the foot of my bed although the last two nights he hopped on my bed right next to me. He is totally unpredictable and definitely has his own mind. He is also a rascal: do not leave any food around. It is his if you forget about it. Nothing is safe around him.

Coco, one of my dogs, came into my den in the early morning and demanded my attention. She insisted I pet her for at least ten minutes. She would not move from that spot. If I stopped petting too soon she would demurely raise one paw and lay it on my lap. She did this three mornings in a row. This was unusual behavior for her. She is usually not that insecure. Let us see if she does the same thing four times in a row. Coco is a long haired midsized black female with fluffy black ears with a splash of white on her neck absolutely irrepressible. She has a very sweet personality and is all female. And she knows it.

Yesterday near my house I flushed ten turkey hens. That was the largest flock I had ever seen at one time. They all disappeared into the woods on my right heading for the tiny creek that lay below. I was thrilled to see so many wild turkeys at one time.

Sweetie, my golden retriever, is no longer that needy. She was neglected when she was really young. When we first got her, she wanted you to pet her forever. She could not get enough affection. She was put in the basement for hours at a time–even got pregnant before she was one year old when she was tied down outside in the yard and a dog jumped the fence and impregnated her. We have owned her, maybe, eight years and now she knows she is loved. She was neglected as a young dog. No longer.

Yesterday I spotted a turkey hen with at least five babies milling around her before they disappeared into the woods. I drove right by them. The babies were half as tall as the mother. That was the second time I spotted a turkey with her babies as of late.

Maybe, Cheyenne, one of my cats, who almost died last year changed her attitude toward me then. He would always walk into the opposite direction when I approached him. Last year he got very sick, had we waited one more day he might have died. The vet said his kidneys had almost shut down completely. We fully expected to hear from our vet that he did not make it through the night. We were thrilled when he called the next day and the vet said he was doing much better. I am not sure if that was the reason he would not run from me any longer. Now we are buddies and he welcomes my touch. I consider that a miracle.