Friday, July 27, 2007

B'rer Willow


My 87 year old neighbor Jim faithfully feeds the little critters every morning on his driveway. He spreads sunflower seed out and chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits slowly and cautiously come up and nibble at the food spread. He even has some of the critters that will eat out of his hand, He is proud of that.

I think he thinks of himself as a white Uncle Remus. He looks kind of like him too. I think he imagines walking around in his yard singing “Zippidi-do-dah” with Mr. bluebird sitting on his shoulders and little rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks happily smiling and jumping ahead of him in joyous mood.

There is a hawk in the neighborhood. One time he almost swooped down and got one of the chipmunks. Jim had a fit. He says he is going to shoot the hawk and mentions over and over how the hawk nearly ate one of his babies.

Yesterday I had some housework to do so I let Willow play by herself outside. A couple of times I stuck my head out on the deck and hollered her name. I heard her tags jingle underneath the deck. I thought she was lying in the shade under the deck enjoying life.

She was.

Finally, I went through the basement door to check on her and saw her lying on her stomach busily chewing on something, I thought probably a stick.. I walked closer to take it away. We are afraid a sharp edge stick in her stomach might do some damage. When I got above her looking down what I thought was a stick was the last gooey mess of the end of squirrel’s tail.

I don’t know if she caught and ate the whole squirrel or just ended up with the tail and its roots.

I am not sure reprimanding her would do any good. That is pure instinct. God gave her that quick hunter’s ability. Well, I guess the hawk could use that argument with Jim too, while dodging bullets.

Oh, me.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I had a dalmation once, the only dog I ever hated. I called him a damnation instead of a dalmation. He wreaked havoc through the whole neighborhood. We couldn't keep him in a yard (can you say Houdini?) and if we chained him he barked nonstop (and really really loudly) until he was freed. He would steal folks shoes off their porch, take their newspapers and bring them to me, etc. One of the few really good memories of that dog was that I would often come home and he would be sitting in the front yard with a dead squirrel draped in his mouth, which he would promptly lay at my feet when I got out of the car. I got the impression he was giving me a wonderful gift, at least in his eyes. Thanks...

Eddie said...

Bird,
Darn! Selfish Willow didn't even consider sharing that squirrel's tail with me.

kenju said...

Ick. Did you wash her mouth out with soap? Don't let her kiss you for a while....LOL

I used to have a cat who caught squirrels all the time. It grossed me out!

Unknown said...

ed,
i imagine that damnation had already eaten his fill of squirrels before i got home, so he was willing to share with me.

Eddie said...

Judy,
I must admit I was hesitant in letting her lick me in the face for a while.

Bird,
You gotta give him credit for sharing, he could have buried it for a rainy day.

EHT said...

I have a cat that I swear is part wildcat. She brings us all sorts of presents. Baby rabbits, snakes, squirrels, moles, chipmunks, and the other night we had a rat she must have found in the high grass along the powerlines. Ick!

You know, you think your pet is so sweet and then they have go and remind you that they are in fact an animal. Sigh....

Eddie said...

eht,
That's ok, sometimes I remind it that I am an animal also.