A Wild Weekend

We live in St. Louis, but in an area with a big lot near a creek not far from Grant's Farm. This location makes our yard a playground to various wildlife. We have an array of birds, squirrels, rabbits, frogs, toads, owls, bats, snakes, chipmunks, opossums, and raccoons that call our yard home, whether permanently or temporarily throughout the year.

Now that we have our recently turned 1 year old wild animal Indy, the animals have figured out the range of his electric fence and love to stay just outside of its boundary, taunting him and grating the neighbors' nerves with his bark.

A raccoon inadvertently wandered into Indy's realm and was promptly chased up a tree. He stayed in that tree for hours. We thought he might have rabies so watched him for awhile, but then figured he was just stuck up there. So, since my husband loves me and knows that I have a soft spot for animals, he put up a ladder for the raccoon. I would have loved to see that raccoon use the ladder. I can only assume he used it to get down because the next morning he was gone. Our genius dog Indy just assumed he was still up in the tree, though, and barked at the tree for about another 3 hours.





This year a pair of blue jays decided to make a nest and lay eggs in a tree in our yard. Their nest is close to the ground within Indy's domain. I don't think they knew this when they went to work on their building. Those poor parents must be exhausted guarding their babies. Indy doesn't realize that the nest exists, but gets great pleasure out of "playing" with the blue jays. He has figured out that if he approaches the tree, the blue jays swiftly come out of thin air to swoop at him, quickly pecking his butt or head, before they fly up to a wire where they sit and taunt him. When Indy gets bored or wants to play with them, our Pavlovian dog simply walks close to the tree. Instant playmates!



Poor, lonely puppy.