This morning I had just finished four miles on my exercise bike when I heard a bunch of commotion from the kennel yard. Nexus, Owl, and Viljo virtually never fight but this did not sound good. I went out and found that there was - or had been - something under the corner of the kennel building. All three dogs were digging and barking and running back and forth through the nearest dog door. I went into the kennel and Owl began barking with his head shoved behind the shelving unit. Beside the shelves is a door to a very small room (closet size) that also has a door to the outside. I opened the inside door, figuring that a black snake, mouse, or chipmunk was long gone. The dogs piled into a corner behind some stuff I have in there and came tumbling back out with a woodchuck! Woodchucks, also called groundhogs, are very tough little guys with sharp teeth and claws but obviously no match for three determined dachshunds. They pulled it into the kennel room and it took a few minutes but they killed it. I weighed it afterward. It was a 7.8 pound male and recently out of hibernation. Where it came from, I don't know. Marta killed one on the neighbor's property several years ago. But I have never seen a groundhog on my property, much less inside the kennel building! The outside door to that little storage room was gaping open a bit from recent winds which must be how the animal entered.

I have to say that good old Nexus worked the hardest and with the most intense determination. At first, Viljo was like wow, I've never seen anything like this! But after a moment's shock and awe, Viljo was the one gripping most around the head and neck which was very helpful to their cause. Owl tried a few times early on to pull it outside through a dog door in an effort to claim it for himself. But he was working against the woodchuck, Nexus, and Viljo and gave that up.

I knew the instant that the woodchuck was dead because Owl began a low growl toward the other dogs. I picked Owl up and took him away. While I was momentarily gone, Nexus and Viljo got into it with each other. I picked Nexus up and that was the end of that. None of the dogs was hurt except Nexus has a small puncture wound on the bridge of his muzzle and one on the flap of an ear. (From the woodchuck or from Viljo? I suspect from the woodchuck.) The dogs were very happy that the woodchuck was there. I am happy that the woodchuck is gone. I do not want den animals burrowing under the kennel building!

Well, you can see that I do not always lead a quiet and peaceful life!

I have buds coming off the iris stalks in the bucket in my living room! Teddy Moritz gave me these when I was at her place in New Jersey in June. I planted the cutting from her grandmother's heirloom rose but never got around to planting the irises and a few pieces of a ground cover that she gave me. In December, I brought the bucket with mud and some dried brown leaves inside in hopes that something would grow in the spring. But I didn't have to wait that long!

On a night in the 3rd week in April I will hear my favorite bird, the whippoorwill. I LOVE hearing a whippoorwill call! They do not like civilization and many people have never heard one. The first time I ever heard a whippoorwill was 11 years ago when I first stood on the porch of the house that I live in. It was evening and a friend of mine and I had made a trip out to see this house with acreage that was for sale. A whippoorwill was calling loud and clear from a nearby tree. It was for me a big attraction to the property!

I took a tape recorder out one time and got close to a whippoorwill and recorded it. But I have never actually seen one. They will perch in trees but they nest on the ground. Their camouflage is astounding.

Hearing a whippoorwill for the first time each year is what truly signifies spring to me...

Here is a You Tube recording of a whippoorwill.