Crazy Wildlife

So it seems like the local wildlife is getting a bit wonky lately. Mokey and I have had several encounters with our yard neighbors this summer and each one has seemed kind of stupid.

A couple months ago Mokey went outside for her evening stroll. It was dark and she immediately shot off to guard Yard from our terrible bunny evasion. I heard her extremely high-pitched critter alert and after a minute, as per usual, the alarm ended. Yard was safe once more; or so I assumed. A minute or two later when I opened the door to let the dogs back in, neither dog came. While such an action isn't unheard of for Mo, Chase (our literal stop watch) always promptly comes when called. When neither dog came, I got a little worried. Shoving my shoes on, I went out to the back where I could dimly see their outlines glowing in the dark. As I drew closer I realized Chase was pacing around Mokey with his 'I'm gonna get it!' expression/body language. Meanwhile, Mokey is looking up at me and back down with a worried & wrinkled forehead. Once I'm near the dogs I know what has her so worried. She caught the bunny. The poor thing is laid out on it's side and Mokey keeps looking down at it and pawing at it like, "What'd I do? Get up! Let's run some more!" At first I thought the dogs had accidentally killed it by pouncing on it since there wasn't any blood (Ok, it probably wouldn't have been an accident on Chase's part). But the next morning, when we went out to bury it . . . the bunny was gone. Apparently, they can play dead too. It's called Tonic Immobility. Who knew? It took Mokey the entire night to calm down afterwards but at least the bunny was alive.

Mokey practices her Nose Works abilities

Two weeks later I'm out mowing the lawn. We have a riding mower so I usually watch the front wheel to make sure I don't hit the fence. On that particular day, as I'm watching the wheels, I see this little gray lump suddenly hop forward. There was a bunny literally an inch away from the wheel! By the time I see it and realize it was a critter, I'm already forward with the blade part of the mower. I still swerve away, hoping by some miracle I didn't just kill a tiny, calendar worthy animal. And then I sit there. On the mower. Because I'm not really sure I want to go back and look. Did I hit it? Why didn't it move out of the way? Our lawn mower is loud! Eventually I convince myself I have to look in case I really did hit it - I don't want the dogs to find it. So back I go ... the silly bunny was completely fine & completely frozen. I had to tap it with my shoe to get it to move out of the yard.

Two night ago, Mokey found another opossum. Sigh. She always does this stuff when it's late at night and I can't actually see her, all I can hear is the critter alarm. I went running back to find her desperately jumping against our now (luckily & wonderfully) 6ft fence, trying to get at the

Chase has so much drive it's scary

oppossum who's frozen at the top with his mouth open. What is with these things? Can't they just jump off the other side? Even though the fence is now 6 ft, she was literally 1 inch away from having possum for dinner. While the bunnies seem fun to chase and play with, I have no doubts that the possum falls under the 'prey that would be good for killing' category. We left the opossum where it was and finally coerced Mokey into coming in for the night.