Late Night Fun

[otherearths_outthere]

Going to bed at 1:00 a.m. or later is not unusual for me, actually it’s pretty standard. Having the doggo wake me up at 3:00 a.m. or 4, or whatever is not uncommon also. So as I was finally getting under the blankets at 1:30 ish, Rufio started to bark. I figured old dog, tricky digestive system. I opened the back door and hear a gigantic splash and mad paddling in our creek. Rufio goes bonkers and ran down to the creek. I’m chasing after him and yelling, “ no! Stop, wait! Stop! Because I know it’s our resident beaver doing his thing. I’ve only seen the beaver a couple of times, but we se lots of evidence of him. He’s felled a couple of trees and I know exactly where his burrow is. I’m not afraid Rufio is going to hurt the beaver, I’m afraid the beaver will *eat* Rufio. When The Colonel was living in Georgia, a beaver inflicted great damage to my husbands friends dog, a Rottweiler. Necessitating surgery, stitches and antibiotics. Fortunately I was able to grab Rufio and haul him away and back to bed, but geezuz I don’t need that kind of exercise at that hour of day, ugh night.

Comments

[sgamadison]

Oh man, I can sympathize. We're more likely to run into a groundhog than a beaver (though both are possible) and a GH can take a dog's face off. I can only imagine what a beaver can do.

And once when we were out hiking, H chased a 400 pound bear up the side of the mountain, with me running after them both screaming, "LEAVE IT!!"

Yes. I can definitely sympathize. Glad you're both okay.

[otherearths_outthere]

Oh wow! A bear? Holy smokes! I can’t believe a bear ran away from the dog. Lucky. So lucky. When you mentioned that, I quickly flashed back to when we lived in Arkansas and the time we happened on a rattlesnake. We were in our local municipal (?) park which apparently is 3rd largest park in the US, after Central Park and Golden Gate. There’s a lot of ‘wild’ space along with soccer fields and such. We of course liked the wild areas. My kid was quite a bit in front of me keeping up with a much younger Rufio, when I hear kid going bonkers. Rufio was in a stand-off with the rattlesnake and Ethan couldn’t get Rufio to come to him. Miracle of miracles, when I got to them, Rufio was going back to Ethan and the snake settled down. I couldn’t believe it, but we got right off the trail and practically scaled the cliff to get away. Then there was the time he got sideswiped by a skunk. Not a full blast of skunky, but enough. Oh boy, I kind of ‘repressed’ those memories. :)

[sgamadison]

Well, the bear surprised us in the middle of the trail. H lit off after it as though he'd been rocket launched, and I charged after him screaming at the top of my lungs and waving my arms. The bear took one look at us and charged straight up the side of the mountain. If he hadn't, H would have caught him and that would have been ugly. :-(

Ugh. Rattlesnakes are terrifying. We didn't use to have them in our area but thanks to climate change you now can run into them in parking lots and other unexpected places. I worry about the dogs because a rattlesnake bit can definitely kill them (a copperhead can make them sick but they almost never die from them).

And both H and C have encountered skunks more than once. I had to run to the grocery for supplies after one such incident and the other shoppers gave me a WIDE berth as I approached. :-)

[otherearths_outthere]

I cannot believe you have rattlers in parking lots ::shivers::
Maybe they are more shy in Arkansas. We did also have water moccasins. Sigh. We did have nice wildlife also, and I do miss that. My son who lives in Florida had two of his huskies bitten by a rattlesnake. I think he flew his Jeep to his veterinarian. Fortunately he got there in time to save them. There was concern one would loose an eye, but that did not happen. He has pet insurance, but the one thing it doesn’t cover is snakebite. It cost $3000 , and of course could have been more if the had to use more anti-venom. Of course he was upset, but what surprised me when he related the incident, he said,”if it had been Rufio, it would have killed him” I guess I didn’t think he’d think beyond his own fear at the time.

So, ugh, you got a little Eu du Skunk on your person? How awful. Although I’d like some ability to be able to part the crowds like the Red Sea when I m shopping. :)

[sgamadison]

Yes, antivenom runs about $600 a bottle, and a big dog can need three or four bottles... :-(

And I've been secondarily skunked often enough we keep the treatment ingredients at the house now. :-)