Living with animals...

If you live in an old farm house, especially if you have livestock, you will find that you get visitors in the fall. Not necessarily the sort of guests you welcome with open arms, either.  These visitors are wee and sneaky. They tend to prowl around at night, and sample the food in your pantry. And they poop a lot. These callers are mice. They are cute and wee and destructive and disgusting.

At our house they have a special affinity for one drawer in the kitchen. It's the space where I like to keep stacks of kitchen clothes and towels, and spare scrubbies for dishes. I had just organized the drawer, washing everything and putting it away neatly when I noticed the first calling cards of the unwelcomes. This meant I had to rewash everything. I set a trap and caught a mouse. I set the trap again. Another mouse.  Set, repeat. I keep cleaning the drawer, keeping it empty, and resetting the trap. The local news reports that there are record numbers of rodents in New England this fall. Mice, rats, squirrels. I think the mice are all at my house.  I've moved my kitchen cloths to a basket on the counter, but I miss being able to use my handy drawer.

Chris found some special bait that is supposed to be extra appealing to rodents. I cleaned the drawer, lined it with fresh paper towels, and set a trap. I used the new bait. I left the bottle of bait next to the trap in the empty drawer. The next morning, when I opened the drawer, there was a story told.

 

Little rodent calling cards. A trap still set, but the bait licked clean, and the lid of the bait container gnawed. One clever, competent little vermin. Although frustrated, I had to laugh at the tale that was written in the drawer. 

The lambs we are raising this year are very friendly. A little pushy, even. Friday when I was out feeding the pigs, my coat pocket was full of treats. I was trying to feed the pigs, which can be challenging in and of itself, when one of the lambs nearly knocked me down, trying to put his big head into my pocket and cadge cookies.  I pushed him away firmly with my right hand, and immediately regretted my action.  One might think lambs are soft and sweet and cuddly. In reality their heads are like cement blocks. The inside of my right wrist instantly began to throb. Then it began to itch like crazy. I had managed to burst a blood vessel or two, and a lovely hematoma was developing. It smarted all day.

We used to have a rabbit problem. With a lot of effort, we had gotten down to 3 loose rabbits on the property. I knew for a fact that two were females. I suspected that the third was also a girl, because we had no babies all spring and summer. I was feeling very happy about this. I have to admit I enjoy seeing rabbits hopping around the place, even though they can be destructive to plants and property. A few weeks ago I had a dream that there were baby bunnies hopping around the place. Two days later, I glanced out the window and saw one baby rabbit. "NO!!!" I said out loud. Because there is rarely only one. I set a live trap and the babies happily hopped in. One, two.. seven. TEN. All caught and moved to a safe hutch. Two more remained. A dozen unwelcome babies.  The new hutch is in the garage. The other day I heard the bunnies ricocheting off the walls of the hutch with a lot of vigor. I peeked in to see what was up. 

Click was hanging out with the baby bunnies. He meant no harm, and soon hopped back out again.

He was just hangin' with his friends.

When I am out in the pasture doing chores, I often have a shadow. That shadow is often Spirit.

I'll be walking along and feel a gentle brush behind me. When I turn, this is what I see.
Or this:

Living with animals. It's fun, sometimes painful, ever interesting, and often amusing.