I saw the goat first. It was walking along the woods at the edge of the field heading towards the road. When I pointed it out to my husband Steve, he went into the garage and came back with some dog food in an old metal coffee can. Standing in the driveway, he began shaking the can. The goat turned and headed in our direction. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Animals
The Chipmunk, the Washer and My Ass
Three years ago when I arrived home from work I head a scratching noise coming from behind the dryer and I immediately knew that there was some type of critter in the flexible dryer duct that leads from the dryer to the vent mounted on the outside wall of our home. I knew without a doubt that there was an animal in the dryer duct because it had happened before. Continue reading
Hobo the Wonder Kitty
It was May 2nd, 2012 and I was in the kitchen when I heard my husband Steve call to me from outside, “Lorrie, come here, you’ve got to see this.” Continue reading
Wolf Sanctuary of PA
Lately Facebook seems like it’s a place for people to disagree about everything from politics to the best apple pie recipe, but sometimes a gem sneaks into my feed. Such was the case last week when Only in Your State made a post about the Wolf Sanctuary of PA. As it turns out, this little gem is located within thirty miles of my home but until I saw it on Facebook, I had no idea it existed. Continue reading
Batter up!
I was in bed watching television late one evening when my then college-aged daughter came out of her bedroom and said, “Mom, look at Jo, she’s just running back and forth in the hallway.”
I looked towards the doorway of my room and saw Jo, our Cocker Spaniel, shuffle past my doorway, then shuffle past again, going in the other direction.
“I don’t know what she’s doing,” Kinsey said as Jo ran by again, her nose pointed up towards the ceiling.
“It looks like she’s watching something,” I said.
Kinsey looked up. “Bat!” she yelled as she ran back into her room, “It’s a bat!” Continue reading
Hello. Pretty Boy.
A few years after we bought the house we currently live in we dug flower beds. And so it was that I found myself one hot July evening planting 104 day lilies that my friend Bob had given me. He bred the day lilies himself and although I thought them all beautiful, they did not meet his standards. So I was the fortunate recipient of his lovely “mistakes”. It was hot dirty work in ground that was not the best; full of rocks and clay. But I was determined to get all of the flowers Bob had given me planted over the course of the next two days. Continue reading
Five Seconds
I took the long way home last night after work because the highway was at a standstill. I actually prefer the long way because it’s a very scenic drive that winds along the Blue Mountain Range in Central Pennsylvania. Because the road follows the mountains, there are many blind curves and hills so I try to be careful because you never know what may be just around the corner or over the next knob.
As I came around a corner last night, a fawn, still sporting its white spots, jumped out of the woods to run across the road. I hit the brakes and slowed down, but the pickup truck, coming from the other direction, had no time to do so and hit the fawn head on. The impact caused the fawn to fly through the air sideways before landing on the road and spinning in circles across the pavement, coming to a stop just in front of my Jeep. As I swerved around its body, I saw two clumps of white fur floating down through the air towards the road.
Because of where I live I am used to seeing deer; they are everywhere and deer getting hit by vehicles is common. I’ve been in a cars that have hit deer and I see dead deer along the roads daily. But as I drove away from the dead fawn last night, I started to get tears in my eyes; the whole thing was so incredibly sad. I couldn’t help but think of the fawn’s mother who probably witnessed the whole thing and my heart broke for her. I’ve seen it many times, the doe crosses the road first; the fawn follows a short while later. Had the mother waited a few more seconds to cross; or had the fawn gone a few seconds earlier or later, he would have made it. Sometimes, five seconds can be the difference between life and death.
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Whooo goes there?
I had been sound asleep because it was the middle of the night – just after two a.m. – when suddenly, I was wide awake and very confused. I thought I had heard a noise; a very loud noise. But as I lay there with my eyes open, listening, all I heard was the sound of the crickets through the open sliding glass door of my bedroom. But suddenly it came again, WHOOO-WHOOO-WHOOO. It was the loudest owl I have ever heard in my life. Then, way off in the distance, I heard another owl answer it, whooo- whooo- whooo, which caused the loudest owl to grace the planet to respond WHOO-WHOO-WHOO. Seriously, I had never in my life heard an owl that was so loud. At first, I thought it was fascinating, even funny, lying there listening to the two owls converse. But after an hour I didn’t think it was so funny; I couldn’t fall back asleep. Every time I’d start to drift off, I’d be awakened again by the loud WHOOO-WHOOO-WHOOOing of the owl. To try to drown out the noise, I closed the sliding glass door. But I could still hear it so I put the television on and when that didn’t drown out the noise, I put a pillow over my head. Eventually, all got quiet and I fell back asleep. Continue reading
Is That Your Ostrich?
A few seconds after the doorbell rang my son Aaron knocked on the bathroom door, “Mom, there’s a state cop at the door”.
Although it was only the middle of October and not yet seven o’clock in the evening, I had been taking a bath because I was cold. “I’ll be right there,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. Continue reading
Coonrac!
I was doing the dishes late one summer afternoon when I spied a furry face looking at me through the window over the kitchen sink. Startled, I pointed at the window and shouted, “It’s a…a…” Dang it! My mind couldn’t think of the right word. I knew what I was looking at, but I couldn’t say the correct word so instead I started over and blurted out, “It’s a coonrac!” Continue reading
Splendippity 