Banner Weekend

It's been a busy weekend for all of us. Aoibheall's parents were in town to help celebrate her birthday, we worked a booth at the Boulder Creek Art & Wine Festival, and the cats and dogs have gotten to work on the vermin.

The festival was fun; smiling and being nice to people was great. The best part for me was that since I was volunteering it was easy to laugh off any stress - what were they gonna do, dock my pay?

We went for a lovely walk in the open space preserve off Skyline on Sunday. It was a bit chilly, but what a great time. We saw lots of poison oak, a really big lizard, a bird head, flowers...it was great. At the nature information station there was a big placard showing all the different animals one might see in the area. One of these was the deer mouse. Looking closely at that picture and description, I decided that those creatures the cats have been catching weren't juvenile wood rats, they were adult deer mice.

We all came back home to wash up and then take Aoibheall out to a fabulous dinner at La Bruschetta in Felton. Seriously: I think that's the best dinner to be had in this valley.

On Monday we saw Son of Rambow. That was hilarious, and very well-made. Even the Badb thought it was great.

So, critters:

• We caught a rat in the trap. It was too late for coursing so we kept it in the garage overnight. The next morning, before breakfast, it was dead. No coursing for the doggies. Score 1 for the humans, I guess.
• That same night, though, Fox had caught and partially eviscerated a deer mouse, leaving the corpse and entrails at the bottom of the stairs. Score one for the cats.
• On Monday I saw two deer mice lurking behind the compost bin. I brought the dogs over; Esme didn't seem interested at all, but Dagmar was chasing around, trying to get behind the bin. I shoved at the bin and moved it away from the house a little, but I think I caved in some tunnels. One of the mice was stuck inside the bin, so I put Dagmar in and she had a bit more enthusiasm for the cage match. Score one for Dagmar Verminbane.
• Monday night as I was putting away the chickens, I saw there was a mouse in the trap. Deer mice are big enough to trip the lever on the rat trap! Quickly I fetched down Peaches and the dogs and we set the mouse loose in the driveway. Dagmar ran it to ground and then Esme darted in and snatched the mouse away from her. Esme gets the kill, Dagmar on the assist.
• This morning Fox had a mouse cornered in the living room. She and Oswald had fun chasing it around and then down the stairs. I let the dogs back in from their wake-up potty break and they went to town. The situation was complicated by so many agents, but the Badb came in to tell me during my shower that Dagmar the Rat Killer had triumphed.

Score:
Vermin: 7
Dogs: 8
Cats: 4
Humans: 2

Fecund Eptitude

Be careful what you wish for, and all that.

A couple days ago Aoibheall woke up and found half a rat on the rug in front of the bathroom. Fox has discovered that rats are made out of meat. She left the head, shoulders, three feet and the tail; I assume that was because those are the bony bits, but maybe she wasn't all that hungry or maybe she just wanted to leave us something so we could be proud of her. From what was left, I'd guess the rat was maybe three inches long.

Saturday morning, there was a little mole in our closet (no doubt courtesy of Fox). I set the dogs loose and they caught it and took it outside. They didn't eat it, but did kill it. Esme spent a lot of time licking it. Gross.

The black and white rat escapee caught herself in the trap Saturday evening. It was too late to hold another rat derby, so we decided to hold it after Mother's Day brunch. Unfortunately, the Badb has not yet had field hockey in P.E. (I think they wait until fifth grade for that) and so the rat got by her and escaped into the blackberry bramble.

This morning there was another wood rat in the trap. A bit smaller than the last one, but still a sizable four to five inches, not counting the tail. This evening Peaches, the Badb and I took the dogs out on the driveway in front of the garage for another installment of rat chasing school. This time, Esme actually had the rat in her mouth, but put it down. Dagmar was completely amped, but not quite quick enough in following. After the rat escaped into the wood pile, she kept nosing around and acting very excited. She wanted that rat.

Later this evening, Aoibheall and I were sitting at the table doing some paperwork and we heard Fox scrambling around behind the TV. Last night, it had been Oswald getting himself stuck back there, so I didn't pay much attention. But then Dagmar started whining and I noticed Fox just sitting in front of the old toy chest, keeping an eye on it. I let the dogs out of their crates. Esme went straight for the plush bed with a chew toy, but Dagmar started sniffing around the chest, getting very excited all over again.

I pulled the chest away from the wall (hardwood floors and felt feet on all the furniture certainly makes this sort of excitement easier to manage) and a little rat went scurrying along the baseboard, diving to sanctuary under the short bookcase by the Nuu-Nuu.

I moved some more stuff, pulled the bookcase out from the wall, and eventually coerced the rat out from under with a stick. Dagmar, Oswald, and Fox were all very interested in the proceedings. When the rat went running, Dagmar was after it in hot pursuit. She caught it and gave it the patented terrier rat shake. Score for Dagmar! Esme then darted in and swiped the rat, prancing around the room while holding the carcass by the head. I gave both dogs lots of treats. It took a lot of treats to be a fair trade for the rat.

Oswald was put out by all this. He'd started swearing at the others in the midst of the flushing of the game and run off outside. Just as I finished putting things back where they belonged, including dogs back in crates, I noticed him crouched under the table playing with something. "What's he got?" I asked.

"A bug," said Aoibheall.

Well, almost. It was a bat. So then we had to try to get the bat out of the house, since he let the bat go (we wanted him to, after all) and it started flying around in circles. Aoibheall opened the sliding glass door but the bat seemed oblivious. She opened the front door and the bat just flew past it, circling around and around the ceiling fan (which was off), but being joined by a moth from outside which was almost as big as the bat. I got a broom and tried to urge the bat to fly toward the open doors, but I can't take any credit for the bat's eventual escape. I think it was just luck. Aoibheall: "Bats are really inefficient."

I smacked the moth with the broom.

Vermin: 7
Dogs: 5
Cats: 3 (Oswald *would* have done the bat if we'd let him)

The House of Inept Animals

Dagmar and Esme have killed moles. They've not managed to demonstrate digging for anything except cat poop, though, and they've not caught any rats.

We went to the store and bought a pair of live rats. We wanted to go coursing with our dogs. We set up on the driveway, in front of the closed garage door. Three of us standing around with brooms and poles to poke the freed rat back into the middle, and the two dogs sitting there looking expectant.

The first rat got away anyhow, making a quick break for the hillside and getting clean away into the shrubbery.

The second rat didn't get away. But the dogs didn't kill it, either. They'd go after it when it ran, pick it up in soft mouths as if carrying a puppy, and bring it back to the center. They just wouldn't bite it. Eventually I took pity on the rat and gave it grace with a hatchet. The whole scene reminded me of Rollerball and I felt horrible for a week.

Last weekend some of Aoibheall's family came out and, as I was cleaning up in the office preparatory to setting up beds for people, I found a stiff, cold, dead rat. Adult, with a pretty clear bite mark near its shoulders. So, one of the cats has upgraded from juvenile rats to adults. That's good news, eh?

Last night I saw the escaped rat (white with a dark gray blaze on its head and shoulders) dash out from underneath the coop when I went down to put the chickens away. So, the escapee is getting on with the locals. Maybe soon we'll start seeing tamer wood rats? I set the trap under the coop.

Tonight there was a rat in the trap. Regular adult female wood rat, not the escapee. I got the cage ready, figuring we'd stage some kind of training session with the dogs tomorrow. The rat got away as I was trying to transfer it into the cage. Garr!

Vermin: 5
Dogs: 3
Cats: 1
Humans: 1

The vermin are still winning. I'm embarrassed.