Adventures in the Night

I know I have mentioned that I have a mouse problem in my chicken house. The dog knows when I scream that there is a mouse. I have tried but I just can't help but scream no matter what. So now every time I scream, even the hens come running, and they have become really good mousers. I won't tell you the grisly parts because it is and I have looked differently at my hens. All of this is leading up to my story.

When we moved here one of the things I learned was if you don't put your cats up at night, foxes like to eat them. Foxes have been barking at night so I am very careful and always make sure my cats are in the house at dark.
I have a very fat cat named Linx. She was one of the feral kitty's we got right after we moved here. She has a very different kind of personality. She is the cat who comes and eats every time my dryer buzzer goes off. She is also so fat she doesn't climb fences and when she is feeling frisky in the back yard she can barely climb a tree. She loves my chicken house right now and sits outs there watching what I think are mice. I don't think she catches them, I think she just watches.

Last night I had to take the dog out. It was one of those nights that it was pretty warm, but there was no moon so it was really dark. I was trying to not wake up so I could just get back in bed and go back to sleep.
It is spring. Skunks like spring. Skunks like my back yard. I hate skunks. Last night Sasha was in browse the porch, look at things in the flowerbed, sniff the air, you know things dogs do. I was leaning on the porch rail,
 and I said, " Sasha Go to the bathroom now!" Which is a mistake, I can go right to sleep if I don't talk.
Sasha bounds across the yard, toward a black shape in the yard. I am yelling, " No, no, Sasha come back!!!"  Sasha runs up to what I think is a skunk. Now if you have ever seen a skunk in action, they don't wait for trouble to get to it, skunks rush out to meet it. I was close enough that if that thing sprayed I would get it too.

I ran back in the house, now fully awake... To grab, my flashlight. I always think of things to late. My husband by now is out of bed and at the door. He starts laughing as Linx comes in all purry and happy.  I had no idea I had left her outside. She walks across the bedroom to the door with kind of a sashay.  I of course have just had a adrenaline rush.  I still have to go take the dog back outside. I use the flashlight this time. No skunks.
I know that someday I will be posting about my run in with a skunk. I just hope it doesn't nail me.

I didn't go back to sleep. For hours. My husband and the dog did.

You know sometimes, I think about living in a neighborhood, with neighbors sharing a fence. No tumble weeds to haul or clean up after, no skunks coming in the back yard, no foxes that eat cats. No foxes living on my front porch. Road runners not walking through the yard. My car staying clean. But then I think of all the dreams I still have and I am glad that even though this isn't perfect, it is pretty nice.
Have a lovely Thursday! I am so glad it is almost the weekend. We have another storm coming. I am so excited.
~Kim~