Skip to main content

monday melee


Photo credit goes to xeriscapeaz.org

On Monday morning Jack woke early and had plenty of time to play with Cassie in the backyard before school. I was inside making Jack's lunch when I heard Cassie's Alert Bark, so I went outside to investigate. She was barking ferociously at the resident herd of javelina, passing through the wash behind the house, trotting on their ridiculously tiny hooves. "Jack! Come see the javelina!" I said.
He ran over and leaned against the wall by the lemon tree, where the wall runs shortest. "Here pig pig!" he called. And what the hell? The big ones started coming over, and the little ones followed. "Oh-ho!" Jack was delighted when the entire herd of seven javelina---five adults and two babies---walked over to stand just on the other side of the wall, lifting their round wet snouts and sniffing our air.

"Someone's been feeding them," I said, over Cassie's barking, and turned to go inside to get the camera; talk about a bloggable moment.

But before I took my first step Cassie hoisted herself over the wall and into the midst of the herd. They scattered. Two adults ran east through the wash, the babies ran west through the wash, two adults ran across the street, and Cassie chased one adult across our neighbor's front yard. I hollered for David, ordered Jack inside, and ran barefoot across the decomposed granite side yard to retrieve my dog. The javelina charged her and I tried to grab her, Dave yelled at me to come back, Jack was suddenly in the middle of the melee.

When Dave said to us, "Get back here. Cassie's protecting you," I saw the truth of it and retreated. Cassie came back to us and the javelina ran off. The whole incident lasted maybe two minutes total, but sure was an exciting way to start the week.

Comments

Momma_Dee said…
OH! MY! GOD!
Mim said…
Wow, we don't have wild pigs. well, at least I haven't ever seen any. Wild turkey, deer, foxes, coyetes, I've heard bobcats. That's kind of scary. But we live in the country on 20 acres. Don't you live in the city? That's crazy. By the way, I don't live in the same town as gnightgirl anymore either. We moved back to our hometown area. But I go visit the area a lot. I don't get to see her much though. Too busy!
Anonymous said…
Now those are definitely something we don't have on Long Island! We don't get any more exotic than some seagulls and a few deer!

Popular posts from this blog

memory

Jack doesn't have many "activities." I don't relish the thought of driving him to soccer, piano lessons, gymnastics, tae kwon do, KidzArt, swim team, T-ball, so on, and so forth. Not to say that I don't recognize the value of these activities, but I witness firsthand the toll a full schedule takes on little ones. On Monday nights Jack and his cousin participate in Young Champions of America Karate, which is more about learning discipline, respect, and self defense than it is about martial arts. Recently we've picked up a new activity, which is also about learning discipline, respect, and creativity: Tucson Lego Club. He was invited to join by Nathan and Lucas, friends from church who also attended the preschool a few years ahead of Jack. Here he sits between them, at a table surrounded by 6 other boys, each of them building a lavish Lego creation. Members spend an hour building and fraternizing, sometimes more fraternizing than building, but at the end of the

wedding gift

On Saturday Dave's cousin Traci is getting married. At the last minute we decided to fly to Ames for the wedding and to see everyone who will be in attendance there. At the last minute, I decided to crochet a throw as a wedding gift. I just finished. The colors in this first picture are true; the other two pictures were taken with flash so the colors look brighter than they really are. I started last Monday night with 7 skeins of Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick in Periwinkle. It's 72 single crochet in the back loop only for as many rows as you want. Then single crochet around in a contrasting color. I chose Wine. I bought the yarn at Big Lots for half the retail price. It's long and skinny but very texturally appealing. Though all skeins were of the same dye lot, you can see that the top and bottom skein are definitely different, not so much in color as in texture. It's pure dumb luck that they ended up at the top and bottom. It's not perfect, but neither is mar