Winter wildlife

Oooooh, shadowy.

We had a decent coating of snow up here in Douglas, and I noticed some tracks in the back yard outside my studio window. Hubby and I decided to wander the property and see who's been visiting us.

Little buggers should be paying me rent!

The ones I could see from my desk look to be mice - close to the house as they are hiding under the hot tub to stay warm. There are delicate little lines of these tracks all over the yard, sometimes crossing each other, and occasionally beating down a major path (around our stone wall and into the woods). I've bumped into a family of  mice living in the shed outside (I got a nasty surprise when I opened up an old drawer in the screw cabinet) and I see the cats haven't gotten rid of them yet.

Uh oh - look out kitty! My Spidercat will kick your butt!

Speaking of cats, I caught a glimpse of a big orange tabby crossing the lawn today - these tracks look to be from him.

OMG OMG run run STOP! Pivot, run run run!

I also see some rabbit tracks outside the studio - this guy made his way around the shed and for some reason stopped, took a breather and doubled back.

Bring back that big toy!! We want to play chase!!

While we roamed the property, our dogs followed us around to see what we were up to. Lots of excited barking. Just before we had the new snow, we had a couple of deer on the property and they happened to be in the yard right when Brian let the dogs out for a run in the paddock. The dogs took off like lightning after the deer, and it doesn't look like they've ventured back around yet. (Damn! No deer tracks) After all that excitement, the dogs are hoping for another go with the local wildlife. I'm pretty such they'd be terrified if anything turned around and chased them back. Until that happens, they will consider it the BEST. GAME. EVER!

Omnomnom!!!

The stone wall that divides our property is a haven for rodents - some little guy snuck out in  the snow to nibble on the grass over here before running back home. We also found more tracks of something smallish that vanished under the greenhouse - probably the same creature that got in there during the summer and ate our birds. More cat tracks and a mystery dog down by the lower paddock. Lots of action here in the last 24 hours!