Night Visitors 2

Tandi is up to two 10-minute walks per day now, though still not able to be with other dogs, as she gets too excited and wants to run or dance around. I try to take her when I don't think other dog owners will be out, but  I'm not always successful. While coming back towards the house the other day, I ran into Kathy, who has two Westies and another terrier, whose actual breed I can't remember, and lives up the street and around the curve from me.

After asking about Tandi, she asked if she'd told me about the bear yet. "Oh, did you see the bear in my yard?" I asked. She got a confused look on her face, and said, "No, in MY yard." AHA! Seems one smashed her feeders, too, even carrying one into another neighbor's yard. She said the dogs were going nuts, barking like crazy. She now brings her feeders in at night. I haven't bought any more yet, because I'm not sure I'll always remember to bring them in before going to work. The birds will just have to fend for themselves for a while.

Then 2 days ago, my neighbor The Mower Man came putt-putting up to mow my lawn. He lives closer to the entrance to our neighborhood, and he actually saw a mom and 2 cubs foraging around down by his house. In fact, he's had to find a different place for his trash cans. He said Mama Bear had shooed the cubs up a couple of trees while she snuffled around, and then WHOOSH!--she was up a tree in no time flat. Up until then, he'd thought he was okay being several yards away behind a chain link fence, trying to take pictures.

While at Home Depot last Friday, I ran into Mark, another nurse who lives just a few doors up from Kathy. Seems he has a nightly visitor, too--a raccoon. This one is rather bold; he comes right up onto the front porch. Mark said he grabbed his camera and was clicking away, flash and all, while the raccoon simply sat up and posed.

Oh, and Mower Man reported spotting coyote tracks in the field back behind his house, out of the subdivision. While bears will ignore dogs and cats, coyotes will go for them.

Taking Tandi out for a last, late night potty run is becoming disconcertingly treacherous.

Night visitors

I took Tandi out to potty this morning and look what I saw--right out in my front yard!

I think we had bears last night! One of my neighbors, before she died, told me she saw a mom and 2 cubs go through her back yard around 9pm one night, but this was several years ago. I've heard another neighbor say he saw bears go through his yard, too, but I've never seen them.

But what else could bend the pole like this?

Tandi walked cautiously over to sniff, but slunk away very quickly.  All the feeders are empty and I think one of them is going to have to be repaired with wood glue or something.

Who'd a thunk it?

P.S. The squirrels are very confused, too.