Chipping Away

 

Hmmmmm, another day of preparation for the annual garage sale event, that was all that was on my mind early this morning.  Before coffee, even, I went to retrieve the SD card from the trail cam ... the only guests lately have been the crows, turkeys, raccoon and squirrels.  I do love the squirrels ... 

But I was a bit bummed out that no deer, or bear meandered through overnight.  

The raccoon seems to have taken up residence, and gets along with all the other critters I've observed...

While enjoying my second cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll ... Annie came ambling through for a bit of corn.  I still don't know what to think about her ...  she seems thin in the haunches, round in the belly, and as you can see ... ready to if not lactating.  Goodness, I feel like a peeping Tom, trying to capture photos of the hind end of a doe!  I keep looking for some change in Annie's body shape ... she still looks round in the belly to me.  I saw her a few weeks ago on a walk into the woods; the property next door has a great open field framed by spruce trees, so the deer forage in our woods on crab apple, clover and other tasty morsels, then go graze on the grass in the field.  I think this doe's baby will be nearby, hopefully soon.

So anyway, as I'm watching the deer and sipping my coffee, I hear the tell-tale sounds of scuffle on the hearth behind the wood stack.  Shadow peeks above the log, and I know he's got something.  I picked him up and took him outside, so I had a better chance of finding his quarry alive, and keeping it that way!!  The catch of the day???

Geez ... are amphibians covered under that obscure fur-trapping Federal law that makes it illegal to pick up a chipmunk???


Froggy was returned to my goldfish pond, no harm done.  Don't frogs excrete a nasty something??  I swear, Shadow can catch and carry just about anything.  And speaking of catching, the frog was just the beginning.  Next was a dead and bloody mouse, followed by the steam-cleaner.  Goodness, I'm tired and I haven't even made it to the garage!


But, by late morning, I was indeed back at the cleaning and setting up for the sale.  I didn't realize how much stuff I had, and there is still more to unpack.  Maybe I'll be having this sale for a while!! In reality, I've already made arrangements to take a bunch to the auction ~ while I'm at the Picnic, I'll be making money and getting rid of STUFF♥

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So I'm not finished down in the garage, but I've had enough for one day... and I head upstairs for a cold drink and a ......CHIPMUNK .....again...... 


Lordy, I am so tired, I just can't deal with this ...and I'm not allowed to pick it up, right? So, I watch it run up onto the hearth with Shadow in pursuit ... but then, he loses the scent!  So now there's a chipmunk somewhere in the house, alive and well and waiting to make an escape.


A couple hours later, I'm relating the story to hubby when Shadow jumps up on the toaster oven, into the cast iron frying pan.  The chipmunk has been sighted on the top of the brick wall, behind a a depression glass bowl and Shadow is about to lunge... so I yell to hubby to get the cat outside so we have a better chance at removing the chipmunk.

I wish I had a "house cam". We could have made a million on the video of the chipmunk running through the house followed by a crazed man with a box and me with the "gopher" ... trying to direct the chipmunk towards the open door but NOOOOOO he goes into the baseboard radiator behind the china cupboard.  "Look", I tell hubby, "either we leave it alone til it comes out on its own, or we move the china cupboard and dismantle the radiator".  "I'm not moving that stuff", he says, so we go on about getting dinner. Yeah, right.....
"CHIP, CHIP" .... the critter is calling and the cats are back inside lured to the sound.  So naturally, I have to move the cupboard, dismantle the radiator, and direct the chipmunk ~ followed by the two cats ~ right out the back door and into the garden where Chippy hides in the tarp-covered straw bale, with Shadow standing guard. 


Ya know, I love my cats, I love the critters. But I'm tired, my legs hurt and I'm getting cranky.  I walk outside with a dish towel and do a couple locker-room snaps on Shadow's ass and he jumps out of the way, leaving time for the chipmunk to run out the other side, through the walkway across the goldfish pond, through the fence and into the woods.  I need a drink. And a have-a-heart trap.  And a helper to get that garage sale all ready.  In the meantime, I'll keep chipping away...




Is my cat the only one, so lithe and limber he can have his butt and his head facing in opposite directions??

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“We are all given a song line. That’s what you are meant to do with your life. 

When you do that, it makes you happy and it makes everything happy around you."

                                                  Paul Taylor, Australian aborigine

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