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And All He Got Was This Gideon’s Bible
Last night just at dusk, my white-faced old dog began kicking up a fuss, quickly joined by my wife’s little alleged dog. They were at the glass patio door, and when we went to investigate, we assumed the possums had showed up early for supper. But no. There were three baby raccoons scampering up the Japanese maple just outside the door. It was raining pretty steadily, and they seemed content to rest up in the leafy bows of the treetop. The dogs were not as content to rest. I truly hope the ‘coons do not hang around. Despite my affection for living creatures, I have strong memories of the predations…
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Which Station Is She?
I saw her when I arrived home tonight. She had been in the same place last night when I got home, at the fence outside our bedroom window, in the shade of the massive pine tree. A new calf was with her then, but tonight, the cow was alone. She was lying down in the rough grass, her flanks smeared with dried mud that had crackled into geometric patterns across her dark hide. Her black face was coated with crawling flies, and foamy drool dripped from her mouth. The calf was nowhere that I could see. I approached the fence slowly, staying silent because I know that human voices spook…
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My Own Private Assisi
My rescue of critters continues. Yesterday, I noticed that one of the hummingbird feeders was empty. When I brought it into the house to wash it out and replenish it with nectar, I saw that a honeybee had somehow worked her way down into the feeder. I dumped her into the sink when I emptied the glass feeder. She was saturated with sugar-water and barely moving, but she did not try to fight me, as the Irishman is reputed to have done when he fell into a vat of whiskey and his mates attempted to rescue him. I took her out to the deck and put her on the rail…
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Beasts Of Hearth And Field
Yesterday I described a neighbor’s sick bull and asked for prayer for the bull. Tonight I want to ask anyone reading this blog to please pray for our little dog, who is very sick. Dixee is a rescue dog; in fact, all of our animals were rescued from various unpleasant situations. She came to us years ago when a construction worker brought him to my wife and told her that the scroungy, trembling little mutt had been hanging out at a construction site and had apparently been abandoned. She looked to be part poodle and part terrier of some sort, and she was hungry and frightened. My wife brought her…