The theme of this post is animals. Much of our fifteen acres is wooded, so you can be sure there is a whole world happening we don’t see. Every day we do see plenty of birds, squirrels, lizards, and iguanas.
We find turtles every now and then. We put a dot of fingernail polish on this little guy to recognize him if we ever see him again.
Our dogs, bless their hearts, on their nightly rounds, encounter private creatures we might not otherwise see. Twice they have come back covered with a powerful smell. The Central American skunk is much smaller than its northern cousin and its scent smells like something burning, nothing like the stench we smell on rural roads in Oregon.
We have many possums but they are quiet, nocturnal creatures and rarely seen. Here curious Dulci scared this one and it was is doing a good job playing dead until Jose came to rescue it. Brett thought it actually was dead but I asked, “Have you ever heard of playing possum?”
Both dogs came back one evening with snouts full of porcupine quills. Fortunately, they let us pull them out, because the vet is in town and it was night time. The quills are only about 1″ long, much smaller that those of their North American cousins.
And of course, our favorite animals, Mario and Dulci. In two weeks Dulci is going to have puppies. We bred her with a friend’s beautiful male Rottweiler. It should be a very fun experience, another advantage to living outside. We’ll take videos.
