Our West from Breakfast, ah, our Guest from Texas has left for home, yesterday as a matter of fact, and our house seems curiously empty, like my head, and like the very low battery charge on my iPad. We had an extremely full and delightful week, and only Schuey and Pinkie could never quite adjust to the new presence. Every time Wally (Wale) moved, Schuster barked and Pinkie ran for the downstairs back room. Silly little dog of very little brain. Wale even got to walk him once or twice during his week with us, which went unexpectedly well and was extremely interesting: Schuster would run, Wale would run to keep up, Wale's shoes would slap the pavement, Schuster would stop and turn to confront the new beast behind him only to find Wale. The process would then begin again. Whoop, joy!
Since the above entry is relatively short, I should add today's excitement before I forget it too. Today (Friday, the 29th), was my laundry day, and I was back in the master bedroom, folding socks, my mind peaceful and quiet, seduced by the quiet house and the unstressful activity. That all changed when Mary burst into the house, yelling, wanting to know why I had not heard her screaming, claiming that she could be dead out there and I would never know.
Years ago I would have been alarmed by such accusations, but I had had another instance of such extreme behavior several weeks ago when she burst into the house crying vigorously, horribly agitated, at the edge of hysteria, if not into the pit itself. My first thought then was that it was one of the dogs, dying or terribly hurt. In great dread I hurried to the back door. "What's happened?" I asked. "Is it Schuster or Simon?" The dachshunds get into everything, especially Simon who frequently comes in with a nose brown from digging and rooting, sussing out underground varments, especially snakes. No. It turned out Simon was fine, she explained between bursts of wailing and crying, really. I do not exaggerate! "What then?"
"I stepped on a toad!" All of this grief and hysteria for a toad? Oh yes. Oh yes indeed. "What happened?" It turns out that she was going to the water faucet to turn it on. Water for the garden, water for the back pond. The faucet is under the kitchen window where there is bright light in the evening. Creatures that eat bugs gather there. Toads eat bugs and sometimes one gets on the deck and lurks, quietly and silently. This large, healthy toad was right in front of the faucet. Apparently it never saw the foot coming, for when I went out to deal with it, it was extremely flat. Road kill! Mary was still groaning and shaking. Much as I too like toads, I tried not to laugh. This was the flattest toad I have ever seen. If our car had backed over it, it would not have been flatter. Of course it struck me funny. What was I supposed to do? Extreme hysteria, flat toad. Such incongruity is one of the bases for glorious comedy. I didn't try to explain that.
Today, same hysteria with a healthy degree of, why didn't you hear me screaming. I'm sure the neighbors did. Well, today she didn't inadvertently kill anything. This time (I would have paid good money to have been back there) she was under the tree house platform near the huge silver maple, sweeping the deck when a very large rat snake dropped out of the sky and apparently landed close to her. Honestly, I would probably have screamed too, but imagining her in this situation almost sent me into hysteria. Plop! Those creatures can climb! Long long ago, I was mowing the back yard and paused under our apple tree to avoid a large limb. When I looked up, there was a large, long rat snake stretched out on the limb before my eyes. I controlled my hysteria and simply watched it. It saw me but made no effort to disappear to the ground. Unlike garter snakes, the rat snakes seem to be fairly calm. Still, I would not want one to drop out of a tree on me, though it might be better than the chewing out I got for not responding to her mortal danger today and the screaming I didn't hear.
Well, I have a picture of a snake and a picture of Wale, and I think I will try the human touch first. We did enjoy his visit immensely. Unfortunately I cannot get the excerpt to work. Ah well, I would look for a picture of a toad but I do not want to press my luck.