BATTY---AGAIN!

     I wonder if I could get Poocheroo to catch bats, in particular the one that is getting into my house!  Two summers ago one got in and James helped me get it out--he caught it when it finally came to roost.  Last summer I was revisited and again James to the rescue:  I knocked it down and he picked it up with a towel and released it outdoors.  Last week it got in again!  James was able to catch it in a small throw rug in my sewing room upstairs and released it outdoors again.  It is bigger this year, getting older I guess.  Well tonight it came flying down the stairs and looping through the downstairs rooms--- again!  I called James-- again-- and he came over and was trying to catch it in the sewing room  when the bat came flying out and down the stairs.  When it had flown back upstairs I had closed off the door to the living room and propped the outside door open wth the porch light on so that when it flew back downstairs it flew out under it's own power.  The only way I can figure that it is getting in is through the ventilators they put in when we had a complete new roof put on two years before David died,  One closet in my sewing room was never finished off so it could come down into it and then into the sewing room and thence into the rest of the house.  I guess we are going to have to get up there to  make sure they aren't roosting in the attic and put some screening over the inside of the ventilators so they can't get in again.  I'm not against bats as they catch a lot of flying insects, I just don't want them in my house!  I hope this was the last bat visit!  It's a good thing the Good Lord gave me a sense of humor or I really would be going batty.  Maybe I need to buy a net.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS

Or maybe I should say tricks I haven't seen before.  Sat. (7-20) I heard a bird making a big fuss out back and went to the back door to see what was happening.  A bird with a red breast, not a robin, was sitting on the rose bush just outside of the dog pen.  He flew to the fence scolding all the time.  He then flew to the old clothes line pole then to the juniper tree still scolding, no other birds around.  Then I looked down at the base of the steps where  Poocheroo was standing.  She looked up at me then down at her feet and I caught a glimpse of red fethers.  She had caught another bird.  She doesn't usually pay any attention to them, lets them drink from her water bowl and even swipe food from her dish that she hasn't eaten, but when they work together one diving at her to  get her attention while the other one swiped her food then she takes action.  I have seen jump and catch them in the air when they got too close.  That is evidently what had happened this time.  (I had to stop and let her in as it is thundering out there and she is afraid of thunder.)  Anyway, I went out on the step and was going to take the dead bird and dispose of it when she bent and picked it up.  "Put it down, " I told her, twice, and she just looked at me then walked away with it.  "All right, you don't want me to take its so what are you going to do  with it?" says I.  She looked at me again then walked to each of her holes she has dug in her yard until she found a small one under the clothes line pole and dropped the dead bird into it and proceeded to push dirt over the bird moving around until she had it completely covered:  SHE HAD BURIED THE BIRD!  Now she doesn't cover anything up by pawing dirt over it but rather uses her nose to push dirt into place where she wants it. It had rained the day before so it was muddy where she had been digging and when she got done and looked up at me with a pleased doggy expression on her face like she was telling me "That's what!"  her muzzle was plastered with  mud!  She looked so comical!  I had seen her bury a bone or a piece of food she didn't want to eat right then but had no idea she would bury a bird.  I wonder if she has any others in her grave yard. She keeps me entertained!