Fair Warning! The faint of heart and weak of stomach should not continue reading.

Yesterday, Nala was out a long while. I assumed she was playing with her dead possum, but I decided to to check on her but then I heard her come inside. I got up to pat the lovely Miss Nala. The dead possum was on the hall floor beside the dogs’ toy box. I made sounds of disgust, eww, eww, eww over and over. My face reflected the sound. I had to keep Nala away while I figured out how to get the possum out of the house. I grabbed a brown bag and a plastic bag. I used the plastic to push the possum into the brown bag. Nala wanted the bag so I held it high as I carried it outside. That totally grossed me out, and I eww’ed to the front door. Nala was right beside me. I took the bag outside to the front yard where Nala never goes. I went to toss the possum, but it fell out of the bag and slid down the small hill beside my house. I left it there in quiet repose. I’ll move it away from the house later.

Today will stay partly cloudy with a high of 39˚. The morning air is filled with the songs of birds, a welcome sign spring is coming. When the wind blows, I can hear the sweet sounds of the chimes hanging from a tree in the backyard. The morning is a delight for eyes and ears.

I went outside with Nala, the consummate thief, and saved some of the things she has stolen and picked up a handful of her trash. I’ll make another run on the trash later.

The dogs stay out a long time. Nala looks for trouble. Henry wanders the yard and sniffs the ground. Henry no longer whacks the dog door for me to come and let him in. He comes in on his own every time. In regard to the dog door, and only the dog door, Nala has been a good influence.

I have a chore list with only a couple of items. Any more, and I’d set myself up to fail. The kitchen floor, which I think is still there under the dog paw prints, needs to be washed. It is atop the list. My bed too is on that list but with parenthesis around it, a notation that means maybe. I have been dusting with my sweatshirt sleeve. It works the best.

I’m going out today. I’ll have to shield my eyes from the light. Other than the quick possum fiasco, I have been inside a long time.

The cold is still here. It is only 26˚. Again, the view from my window belies the temperature. The sun is squint your eyes bright. The sky is blue and cloudless. The day has nary a breeze. The dogs love this weather. They are out for the longest time, even Henry the sloth. As for the disposition of the possum, it will leave my yard today. Nala won’t care. She has lost interest.

When I was a kid, I never saw much wildlife. There were spawns of Satan everywhere. Once in a while a skunk waddled by. We ran in the other direction. I remember on a family Sunday drive to nowhere we all yelled when we saw deer in a field. My father stopped the car so we could watch. Even grazing cows rated a yelp. I remember hawks on the hunt riding the thermals and whirling in the sky.

Here on the cape, wild life abounds. Coyotes are common as are wild turkeys. I have seen as many as twelve or more in a single raptor. They wander up my street noshing as they go. One night a deer stopped in the road in front of me when it saw my car. I slammed on my brakes and slid a bit sideways to avoid hitting it. I saw the scared look of a deer in the headlights. I suspect the deer saw the same look on face. Foxes too are common. They trot along the sides of the roads. I saw a hawk dine on a spawn it had caught. That hawk was right out the window of the cafeteria during lunch. The kids didn’t care. They watched while they ate lunch.

My favorite sighting was in Ghana. I was riding my moto, as they call it in Ghana, on a bush dirt road on the way to visit a friend. The road was remote and only led to her village. A car driven by a white person stopped by my moto to ask if I was lost as that road didn’t get much traffic. Anyway, a bit further on, I could see what looked like hairy men on one side of the road. I stopped and watched. They were baboons, about five of them. One stopped in the middle of the road to look at me. I stood statue still. It decided I was no threat and took off with its gorilla pals. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief.