Life among the critters is never dull. I'd been hearing a sound very much like a beagle's intermittent bark, not so unusual out here in the country, and thought it was perhaps coming from the neighboring horse farm. We hear their dogs from time to time. Yesterday morning when Lucky the farm dog and I set out for our daily walk, we found the source of the sound, the bleating of a little fawn for its mother, who was right close by. Lucky walked a little ways off the trail, found them both, and sniffed a little greeting. The fawn bleated once more. The doe sounded her characteristic grunting. Neither one of them ran. Lucky came back to me, satisfied that he'd seen the deer. No, he never barked and certainly didn't attack. He's accustomed to watching "his" deer herd most evenings as they browse in the back meadow. We are blessed to have such a gentle boy. He takes very good care of "his" chickens the same way and even spends more time on the porch these days, watching over the finches currently nesting in one of our hanging plants.
He wasn't so sweet to the groundhog he spotted yesterday, however. It's a good thing that critter could shimmy up a tree as fast as he did. (I never knew groundhogs could do that!) Lucky has this thing against furry critters. He grabs field mice and neatly disposes of them. The groundhog was obviously not going to get caught. He was still up in the tree early this afternoon. When we got back from a few errands this afternoon, he was gone. We spotted him by the pond a bit later, and he didn't look happy!
So now Lucky is lounging on the front porch and watching the rain. The chickens are hiding under that porch, and the finches are secure in their nest, so all's well in Lucky's world.
