If a tree falls on the road....

..... and it doesn't fall on you and your friends, then it's a good morning indeed.

We were out walking this morning... down our hill, up the next, with a short stop to feed three of the neighbors' horses.... and then we continued on.  We were chatting about one thing and another (trying to save the world, most likely) and we heard a loud c-r-a-c-k behind us.  The three of us turned around, and about 100 yards down the road where we had just passed, a massive Live Oak tree fell over, seemingly in slow motion. The tree was so tall that when it fell, it covered all of the road from one side to the other.

I think all of us said something equivalent to "We were just right there!"  And indeed we were.  So now, as we walk in the morning, we'll have to be aware of snakes on the side of the road (so we can scream and run), bunnies in the fields (so we can watch them and say "aaaahhhh"), trash along the road (which we pick up and put into a bag), and loud c-r-a-c-k-s that could mean a tree is about to fall over (so we can scream and run).

We stopped at G's house, to let her know about the tree, which she heard from inside her house--- she said the floor shook a little bit when it fell.  Then J called her husband and he drove down with a chain-saw to get some of the tree out of the road so cars could pass on by.  Then we stopped at B's house, to ask her to call someone, anyone to take care of the tree.  B called the sheriff's office, which got in touch with the county road crew, and within an hour, a gun-toting deputy and two prisoners in orange and white stripes were sawing up and moving the tree out of the road. (Actually, the deputy was just holding the gun, the guys in the stripes were doing the work.)

Moral of that story..... walking is very good for one's health, as long as one doesn't get smashed by a Live Oak that hasn't had much rain all Summer long.

Last night's story is about a raccoon on the back porch... and I think this is the same raccoon that has come by from time to time, occasionally with two of her babies.  I knew something was going on out there because I heard our outside cat (Gatsby) come running across the porch.  When Gatsby runs, he sounds like a baby buffalo... not exactly light on his paws.  I have a dish of food and water out there for Gatsby, but I've been taking it inside at night, because I don't think I need to be providing the raccoons with Meow Mix on a nightly basis.  (Although, I guess if I did, they wouldn't be raiding the neighbors' vegetable gardens.)

I totally forgot to take in the cat food dish last night, and the raccoon found it.  When I opened the back door, Gatsby was pressed up against the screen door and the raccoon was using his paws to daintily take out pieces of the Meow Mix from the bowl. Such good manners.  I opened the door and Gatsby ran inside and raced towards the TV room, where his best hiding places happen to be.  The raccoon just stood there by the food dish, watching Gatsby come inside, and listening to me saying "Shoo! Shoo!!"  (Which I guess doesn't translate into "Get the hell out of here!" in Raccoon-ese.)

That raccoon just sat there by the food dish, watching me.  She was not going to leave that bowl of Meow Mix just because I was standing there, but she kept an eye on me as her paw went into the dish to grab the cat food, piece by piece. I considered throwing one of my husband's shoes on the porch to scare her away, but with my luck, the shoe would either have hit the raccoon (which I didn't want to do) or it would have ended up right in the dish of Meow Mix, scattering it all over the porch.  Plus, what if the raccoon decided to run off with the shoe?

I opened the screen door and took one of the pillows from the porch chair..... I was flapping that pillow in the direction of the raccoon, telling her to "Go away! Go away!"   She moved back about six inches and sat there, watching me with the pillow.  I used that pillow as sort of a shield, to put between me and the raccoon, and I was able to grab the food dish and bring it in the house.  When I got into the kitchen, I watched the raccoon from the door and she walked all around the spot where that food dish was... walked around in circles looking for that midnight snack.

When she realized the dish was no longer there, she looked up at me with just the saddest, sweetest look on her face.  I almost felt guilty enough to put the dish back out there, or at least give her a piece of fruit. But I didn't..... even those sad little eyes couldn't convince me to keep an all-night buffet out on my back porch for the raccoons living in the woods here.

I wonder if the company who makes Meow Mix would want to come out here to the Hill Country to film a commercial for their cat food...... "Nine out of ten cats, and five out of seven raccoons, prefer Meow Mix to the next best-selling brand of cat food."  You heard it here first.