Not So Welcome Visitors

Pepper went into the laundry room last month to fill the dogs' bowls -- we keep their food in bins in there -- and found dog food scattered all over the floor. Hmmmmm, we thought, but didn't pursue any further investigation. Oddly enough, we also found the bird feeder on its side, empty, on the deck. Damn squirrels, we thought.

Several days later, the bird feeder was down again, and one of the bins in the laundry room was overturned. These things do not just happen on their own, and we've had little to no indicia that Moogie's Manor has ghosts. Hmmm.

The next evening, it was after dark but Bouie wanted to go out on the deck anyway. Our valiant sentry, he often patrols the perimeter to make certain that all is secure so we thought little of it and let him out. Then he went nuts -- barking furiously and jumping up on the rail beneath the bird feeder. We leapt to our feet and dashed out to see what the commotion was all about. We were greeted with this:

Just think -- I have been sleeping across the hall from scavenging, marauding racoons! Pretty darn confident racoons! Inside the house! And our "valiant sentries" slept through the whole thing.

These days, we bring the bird feeder in at night and put the cover on the doggie door in the laundry room.

Moogie appears to have moved to a wildlife refuge.

Overload. Heading to the Deck.

So.

Human jackals are looting the crash site of the MalaysianAir passenger plane, shot down with missile fire by who knows.  There is escalated ethnic cleansing of Christians in Iraq by ISIS, without comment from the Obama administration.  On the same day, within hours of one another, two federal Circuit Courts issued conflicting rulings on Obamacare's individual mandate and premium subsidies, thus suggesting an expedited hearing by the Supreme Court on the law's future with a scary, unpredictable CJ Roberts in the fold. And my babiest baby has yet to recover emotionally from having to put her precious pup, Zeus, down.

And, it appears that chipmunks love to devour green cherry tomatoes.  Even those planted in containers. Alvin has ceased to be cute.

Have I mentioned how very peaceful is the view from my back deck when the trees are leafed out?

Thankfully.