Cats: “Cheese is always a mystery!” Paparazzo: “As mysterious as cheese is to you cats, cheese is not the mystery.”
Jake and I ventured off down another coyote trail. We went as far as we could go and discovered a pair of shovels.
Cats: “Not a pair of shovels! Those shovels are not what one would use in a kitty litter box. Where do you think the body is buried?” Paparazzo: “Good question, kitties. I was asking myself the same question.”
“Don’t look at me! I had nothing to do with it.”
“Those are suspicious-looking ‘Hightops’!”
“I saw no evil. Heard no evil, and I don’t give a bloody hoot about no buried bodies or stinking evil!”
“We’re with you, Daddy Owl! Who has time to give a bloody hoot about another stinking shovel mystery?”
Jake and I stood on the edge of the river at twighlight and watched the Sliver Moon rise this morning.
The Sliver Moon did not get to rise very high before it was swallowed by Dawn.
Osric Owl. Nora and Osric
Cranetrail
Quite A Surprise
After we came home last night, I opened the door to the bedroom and there was a bird flying around in the dark. Before I could turn on the bedroom light, it flew into the bathroom. When I turned on the light in the bathroom, it was a Western Screech Owl.
I offered my hand like I do to our birds, and told him to step up. He stepped up onto my hand with his sharp claws and iron grip. I lifted him up and he hopped over to the towel rack where we photographed him. I stroked his feathers behind his head while I talked to him, and then checked to see if he was injured. He did not seem to be injured, so I put on a glove and tried to get him to step onto my gloved hand so I could take him outside and let him go. He did not like the glove, and bit it while he held tightly onto the towel rack. I finally got him into a sweater box, covered it with the towel, and took him outside to let him go. He refused to fly out of the box, so I offered my hand, he stepped up on it, I lifted him toward the sky, ad he flew off.
It’s a real mystery how he got into our bedroom. He had to get on the deck, which he could through the 4-inch vents near the top of the roof. Then he would have to get through two cat doors to get to the bedroom. Even though screech owls are small, I believe he is too large for a cat to carry in through the cat doors without the cat getting injured by the owl’s sharp claws and iron grip, and the owl getting injured by the cat.
I think like Spunk disappearing for a month, Sasquatch and the scoop shovel, the Screech Owl in the bedroom will remain a mystery.
Screechy is a handsome little guy. Not happy with il paparazzo taking pics of him.
Laurie’s GIF gives you a sense of scale. He is full grown. He started to relax and closed one eye while I stroked him.
His shadow waned with the moon As Sasquatch surveyed changes from yesterday’s yawn He pitied the sorry state of the scoop shovel Alone and cold on unscoopable sand, cursed by old Jack Frost A portal opened, and he walked through to the other side To his land unknown by humans stuck in 3D Leaving the scoop shovel to its fate Meanwhile, Osric courted Nora Hooting sweet nothings in her feathery ear Time to work on this year’s brood Love at twilight. Dawn blushed!
Marble: “Can I lick sweet nothings in your ear, Spunk?”
Black laced trees under a wintery sky
Through the looking glass, Sasha dreams of going down a rabbit hole
Our walk at dawn, a sniff and pee for Jake, took much longer than normal this morning because of colors, critters, and a different route home that introduced Jake to an overwhelming variety of new smells and tumbleweeds to pee on.
Off Center & Not Even 