Critter Report

Summer 2009. We are seeing lizards who are almost as wide as they are long (ok, I'm exaggerating but they are really, really fat), picas are back in limited numbers, rabbits are down, bob cats are bolder. The other morning saw one sitting on top of the chicken's summer house. Saw a coyote as big as a large German shepherd. Wow!

On the domestic scene, Abby and Zoie, our fourteen year old dogs are still hanging in there. They are definitely ancient but still mobile. Zoie can't go for walks anymore so she sticks close to home. We added a new puppy in March, Chaco who is a little dynamo. Actually not so little anymore. Her mom is a Pharaoh hound and dad unknown but was apparently a huge Labrador retriever. The old puppy girls are teaching all she needs to know including to sniff for mountain lions before venturing out.

The chickens are being recalcitrant and not laying eggs right now. We are down to five as one of them was bitten by a scorpion in June. One of the chickens is evil and pecks at eggs, breaking them (when they are producing eggs, that is) and we haven't been able to identify which one it is.

Kat is still Kat. She is a great mouser so whenever one of those varmints does make it into the house she kills it and lays it out in the shower so the mess is easy to clean up. She doesn't like Chaco and still hisses at her.