Thursday November 19, 2009
Picture of the DayA near empty marina over in the islands on Veteran's DayTHE CALL OF THE WILDHad two encounter with wildlife late Wednesday night, one audio, the other visual.
First, a co-worker is on vacation for a couple of weeks and I am doing his end, the high school. I was walking out the doors by the boys locker room to dump my garbage, when I heard a commotion. It sounded like someone doing donuts in the parking lot of the mini-mall. But not really? It finally died down, then I wondered if it was coyotes or coydogs. Suddenly, I heard a high-pitched howling over by the bridge on 128. Then some howling by the mini-mall, then a lone howl in between, then the one by the bridge.
What the heck? Another co-worker was walking around the building checking doors, also heard it, and he said it sounded like a pretty good sized pack of 8-10 dogs.
I have heard similar sounds down in back of my house and even down past the football field, in the past. Really creepy to hear.
When I came home for supper at 6pm, I heard a rustling in the bushes down on the sidehill below the house. Didn't investigate.
When I came home from work at 11pm, I heard it again. I took my fire-department issued flashlight, and headed down in back of the house. Carry Parsons' dog, Tilly, was out on her leash, and she was barking and going nuts.
I turned the flashlight on and started scanning the back yard when I spotted a deer walking around. It looked at me, it had no horns, and looked like a young one. I don't see deer very often, so it could have been a doe.
Anyway, it was making it's way down across the backyard, when suddenly I heard a SNORT coming from near the maple trees. Like a horse's snort, or sharp exhale. I scanned around best I could but didn't see anything.
I then showed the light down by an old dead tree by the burn pile we have, and saw the deer's eyes looking at me. Then I saw a second set. One set of eyes were high, the other low.
Holy crap.
Should I post my land?