* a groundhog. Max is swift and silent when he gives chase. Nothing but the jingle of his tags gives him away. I rescued the groundhog by repeatedly panic-screaming Max's name and grabbing his collar and giving the groundhog room and time to waddle away. I didn't realize how ridiculously slow groundhogs are (and almost cartoonishly silly looking with their overbite and all). It's not Nicole's bear adventure, but it was already too much for me.
* a volunteer oak sapling that had grown almost as tall as the house but had come unrooted in the high winds... I'm rooting for it, I hope it will root too.
* a chapter that almost died from all the cuts I made last week. I'm hoping I can stitch it together tomorrow.
* my office plants, who were happy to see me despite not having been watered in two weeks.
* some bland black bean burgers with a splash of Bitchin' Sauce. So much protein, and my family didn't even realize dinner was vegan.
* myself from the slow burn of anxiety. It was almost grad-school level anxiety... I realized it was because the book I randomly picked via Kindle Unlimited (Ruth Ware's The It Girl) is set in one of my grad school locations. The murder's not helping, that's for sure.
Pic: Big A, Max, Huck (and me) on our evening walk. Huck just trots along happily. Max wants to chase everything that moves (and that includes falling leaves).
7 comments:
It's been so long since I've made Bitchin Sauce that I forgot it existed! Must remedy that.
Lol, not all wildlife encounters have to be bear-related to get your heartrate up! Rex also would murder any number of squirrels/ marmots if only he could catch them. He tries his best but (thankfully for me) has never been successful.
Thanks for the link! I'd never heard of it.
I've suddenly inherited a groundhog (or whistle pig, here in NEO) in my back yard. I'm not happy about it at all. It ate a great swath of my phlox before I chased it off. It's been back a couple of times, and my plants show it. It's awfully cute, though.
That's a lot of rescuing.
Grad school was stressful for me at the beginning when I was trying to get my feet under me as a teacher and at the end when it felt like my dissertation committee was hazing me. I did enjoy the middle years, though.
This may not qualify as a wildlife adventure but I did watch Uno kill a mouse in our back yard this morning. I made no move to rescue it as we had mice in the house for years and only got rid of them several months ago. In retrospect I'm worried though because we do have bait stations outside the house and the mouse could have eaten poison. I wouldn't want Uno to get sick.
Groundhogs, robins, turtles. Slow things I think my dog actually has a chance of catching and harming. Frogs, squirrels, rabbits. Things my dog thinks she has a chance of catching and harming, but she does not.
I recently realized that I get stressed out whenever I read ANYTHING about grad school. I was so unhappy in grad school that I assume everyone else was, too, but if fiction tells me anything, it's that I am wrong about that assumption.
Gillian--Thanks!
Nicole--Wait! You *make* Bitchin' sauce?! I'd like a recipe, please!
Nance--Max or Mr. Z might be able to scare your whistle pig (love the name!) away for you.
Steph--Yes, those final years were a bit tough for me too. I hope Uno is ok...
Engie--Are robins slow? I'll have to watch more carefully. As Steph details, there were some significant "waves" in grad school...
Yes, robins are slow. Or dumb, I can't tell. They see the dog coming and don't move!! Not even in a "deer trapped in headlights" sort of way, but in a "I see you, but I'm going to keep pecking the ground" sort of way. Why are robins like that?!
Engie--Jeez! I hadn't really noticed those silly robins! Why are they like that, and how are there still so many of them?!
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