Animal House

Something in the water at Peterson Ranch has made all the critters crazy lately.   I should use this first paragraph as an opportunity to put in a disclaimer that there are pictures of dead animals on this post, so if you are squeamish, or a member of PETA, probably best not continue reading.

Gunner, my new puppy, has developed into quite the kleptomaniac.  He steals things and stockpiles them.   Socks are the primary target, but bras, underwear, dog food bowls, dog toys, and shoes are not safe from him.  His herding instincts make him convinced that everything needs to be in one central location, so he brings things to a pile in the living room.  But he doesn’t chew on them, so at least that is a good thing.  Case in point, I bought a new floor lamp today and had to lay out the pieces in the living room to assemble it.  During this process, the styrofoam pieces that it was packaged in mysteriously disappeared while I was occupied with the process.  I then discovered them, along with 3 socks, a receipt, and a rainbow sandal in a pile in my room.  Silly puppy never fails to make me laugh J

Seriously though, this week has been quite the “animal house” around here.  Even the beagle has been crazy. 

In the morning, I let the dogs outside and Sydney will howl when she wants to be let in for breakfast.  I hear the typical polite “please let me in” beagle howl and open the back door.  She usually darts in immediately, and upon opening the door, there was no beagle present.  I start looking around (she is still howling quietly) and can’t find her anywhere.  And then I look up….. into the cedar tree….. that’s right.  The cedar TREE.  Last time I checked, beagles don’t climb.  Apparently I am wrong, because stuck about 5 feet up in this tree is my dog, asking for help.  How she got up there? Your guess is as good as mine.  But I literally laughed out loud at the situation.   Didn’t have time to take a real picture, due to my natural fear that Syd would try to jump, but here is the scenario.

Did the beagle antics end with the tree incident?  Oh no.  She also killed her first ground squirrel this weekend.   I think she really surprised herself, because she didn’t know what to do with the poor thing, so she brought it to me for help.  Lucky me.

About two hours later, I found this fella by my garage.

Yep.  That is a rattlesnake.  A dead rattlesnake.  I chopped him in half with that shovel.  He was about 4 feet long.  It was quite an endeavor…. I was out in my yard planting my new mini veggie garden and soaking up some rays in my bathing suit when I went out to the garage area and discovered my unwanted  visitor.  So I panicked, naturally, and ran to get a shovel.  Upon getting said snake-killing-apparatus, I realized that this snake probably has a 2 foot strike range, and I am barefoot and in a bathing suit (i.e. lots of skin exposed to get bitten if I miss him and piss him off instead).  I dashed back inside, pulled on my super heavy duty winter weight Carhartt overalls and some rubber boots and went out there and thrashed him.

People, if y'all looked up “redneck” in the dictionary, you could have found a picture of me.  Winter overalls on top of my bathing suit in a “Bobcat” visor made of pink camo, wailing on snake with a shovel.  Lord have mercy.

Some of the geldings got quite the show.  Turner and Leroy were not impressed (yes, this is the fence to my backyard....ha).

Anywho, I decided that adventure was a bit too exciting for my taste, so I’m getting a gun so I can just shoot the dang things in the future.

And just when I thought all was said and done, I come back inside to a make-out session going on.

Someone should tell Syd that he’s under 18 and that’s illegal in all 50 states (I think….. maybe its OK in Louisiana??).

There's never a dull moment around here, but I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!  

AP