First of all, you would NOT find ME sticking my head under our shed to FIND OUT WHAT IS hissing at our dog... secondly, I wouldn't be putting my hand (and camera) where I could potentially be BITTEN.... The escapades all started last night when I let Fleckie, aka "MIGHTY HUNTER", out to go potty one last time before bed. When she didn't come in after the "allotted amount of time", I went "searching" for her IN THE DARK. Our yard is BIG, but not THAT big. With all the plants and foliage though I figured she could be almost anywhere. I was determined to find her by calling out her favorite "Treat" names... like Chick Chick, Bonies or Steaky Waaaaykeee. That didn't work, so I resorted to bringing some chicken outside for her to get a whiff and come out from hiding. STILL no Fleckie!!! Panic began to set in....Granted, my hearing isn't the best anymore, but I DID not hear even a rustling in the leaves which sometimes I hear when she is rummaging or on a scent-driven quest from someth
ing that HAPPENED to cross our yard perhaps hours earlier...I checked BOTH gates in the front of the house and they were closed and locked... So, I had to call in the BIG GUNS.... aka my OTHER mighty hunter, Kevin! I wasn't about to be poking around in the dark... there's Boogie men out there, you know. Our yard seems to be the spot that varmints like to harbor. In the past, Fleckie has secured, and even conquered, species such as snakes, mice, rats, baby bunnies, baby birds and now, what looks to be an opossum... a small one at that.
Kevin came out with the BLINDING flashlight that he uses each night to round up the "canines on the prowl", but even he had a time locating our "Canine Mighty Hunter"...until...FINALLY he heard a hissing and whimper/whining that we normally hear when Fleckie gets excited.... He ran to the back of the shed and lo and behold.... there she was.... Her head and upper torso stuck up and under the back of the shed as rigid as a board. When she gets something on her mind NOT EVEN "chick chick" will pull her away. Kevin had to pry her out of there with squeals and whines. He almost had her out and she got free again and went as far back under as she could get... After repeatedly telling her "NOT" and "Leave it", which normally work on some things, while pulling her out of there as GENTLY as you can pull a bag of potatoes our of a small hole, he freed her and HANDED her to me to bring into the house. UGH, she smelled...
I didn't know what he what he was doing out there, but he came to get the camera and said that he was GOING TO FIND OUT what it was.... Well, he said he didn't see anything from the back of the shed in plain sight, so he went around to the front and shined the flashlight on the bottom only to see a long tail disappear up and under the shed. So, he went around the back again, looked under and got hissed at with this creature's mouth WIDE open...teeth showing, too. It was probably blinded by the HIGH lumens and scared to death! "Where's my mommy?"
Kevin THEN stuck his HAND, holding the camera, under the shed and blindly took these shots. IS he crazy!? All the while, I am inside trying to calm Fleckie, and now the other two girls, down who were romping all around, jumping on each other and still, quite excitable. I gave them some Chick Chick and brought them into our bedroom and closed the door. Maybe ten more minutes went by before my "Exterminator" comes in with his coup! PHOTOGRAPHS of the varmint in our backyard. He exclaimed that it was JUST an opossum, and that luckily there was a board under there so that it could be high enough under there to be protected from Fleckie..... Of course, I just told him, AGAIN, that we should have put lattice or boards all around the bottom perimeter of the shed when we got it SIX years ago! He just smiled.... looking like he conquered a beast... which HE DID. He's my hero. I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't here to get Fleckie out of that cave. Those kind of things give me the heebie jeebies! I don't think we shall tell our "new" pet sitters/friends/neighbors about this incident, as they may decide NOT to take care of these guys afterall! If that may be something I would have to deal with in taking care of a friend's dog... I'd think twice, for sure.
Can you tell WHICH one is the MIGHTY HUNTER!?!?! Fleck is the alert, dark one.Look at some more of what Kevin likes to photograph, in the dark.. in our backyard. I don't like going out there at all in the dark anymore. I told you there were BOOGIES (or whatever you want to call them) out there.
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