August 5, 2013

White Dog went crashing out into the yard. YoYoMa started to follow but the distant rumble of thunder stopped him at the dog door. The new squirrel intruder was back and White Dog was NOT about to give him a second free pass. "I sure hope he is not thinking of moving into one of big trees," I said to Oso. "That would not work well for either WD or dad!"

Oso had just settled his head against my chest when WD, followed by YoYoMa, and Puff, dashed into the living room and jumped up to see the front yard. We heard the terrible screeching noises and screams of two cats having a serious altercation...but we could not see where they were. The White Dog Army wanted to go out and be peacekeepers...but the clouds picked that moment to open up and drop monsoon rains. Apparently the cats chose to run for dry cover and forget their differences.

THEN White Dog spied movement on the arched opening of Beck's front porch. She ran over and hopped up on the couch for a closer look...then loudly and supremely howled the call to battle! Even Oso insisted on getting off my lap to respond with barks. It was still raining heavily but she was insistent and once I leaned with her to look out I knew why. Sitting on Beck's ledge was a road runner!

Some of you may remember last summer when an aggressive bird attacked our front door and drove the White Dog Army to fearful anger. I was pretty sure that that fellow had moved from the neighborhood but what if he had returned? The WDA had, as a result of last summer, taken a zero tolerance stance on these mean birds of prey.

I signaled for silence and shared a secret plan with the floofy ones. We would close the blind on that side of the room so we would be invisible to the bird...AFTER we placed a sign in the window that read, "Free Squirrel...You Find Him; You Keep Him!"

And I thought to myself, sometimes my life is like an episode of "Wild Kingdom"!