The welcome mat by our door in Sheridan County reads, “A house is not a home without paw prints.” Perhaps it should have a warning in small print, like on food packages that tell you the product was manufactured in a facility that handles tree nuts and so forth. Ours would say that furry critters live here so if you are allergic we need to meet elsewhere.
We do have paw prints, especially when the ground is damp, or there’s snow on. I’ve seen some rugs advertised that supposedly absorb mud off the paws when a pet comes in, but our dogs usually are in such a hurry they jump right over the mat. The calico cat doesn’t bring in much mud but when I spilled flour on the kitchen floor last week she walked through it and left a trail.
Paw prints appear in the yard too. I’m not much of a tracker, but the deer leave distinct hoofmarks, and a snake trail is plain in bare sand. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about snakes for a while yet.
I can’t always tell whether the paw prints are from dogs or coyotes, especially now that coyotes are coming all the way to the porch. One chased the dogs to the house last week, in the middle of the afternoon, and we see eyes in the garden spot at night. Gone as soon as the door opens and a rifle appears, of course.
Something keeps getting the food we put out for barn cats. Maybe raccoons or even the skunk that one of the dogs encountered a while back. There’s an old dog house next to our back door where cat food is placed for the ones that hang around the house, and it has a wire barrier over the door held by a strong bungee cord. There’s just enough space for a cat to get under and find the feed. But lately the opening has been jimmied and the food dish dragged into the yard. “Aha! Raccoons are back. Time to set the live trap.” And we did. But the same scenario keeps occurring anyhow. So Bruce set up the game camera, and got pictures of Mr. Raccoon, but also a coyote that seems to have developed a taste for cat food. May as well, he has already disposed of some of the cats. Haven’t figured out yet which varmint is managing to get the door barrier down, or turn over the live trap in order to spill out the bait and eat it.
A couple of years back, we had a possum looking in the door on the deck, but that’s pretty tame compared to the neighbors who discovered a mountain lion on their porch. I used to be fond of late evening walks but have lost my taste for that kind of exercise. It’s nicer to be the one watching the visitors from indoors.
I’m a little worried though. Daisy, our larger dog, has learned to open the deck door when she wants in. The other day, she let herself in and then back out again. I’m thinking this coyote is every bit as smart as Daisy, if he can get at that cat food. All I can say is that when he learns to open that door, I’m outta here.