Friday 14 Oct 2005
2:42 p.m.

Yesterday afternoon I put on my red and black plaid jacket with its bright orange “hunter’s” lining, and walked with Sara the Hound north across the pasture. On the other side of the fence I spread my jacket on the ground and lay on my back, looking up at the blue, blue sky and its wisps of high white clouds. The wind roared above my head but I was perfectly warm, and nearby a few dry leaves, clinging to twigs reluctant to let them go, rustled in the breeze. A tiny spider, almost transparent, crawled onto my forearm; I brushed him off, worried he might be hurt. He looked like a miniature scorpion. A ladybug landed on my chest, but stayed only long enough to be greeted with delight before flying off again.

When Sara came over to lick my face, I got up and walked the fenceline along the summerfallow field, to the road. Sara ran ahead of me in the ditches, nose to the ground. Before long she had treed a small animal that I think was a weasel*. Its body was long and thin, almost like a snake's, and about a foot long, not counting its tail.

I took these pictures, but didn’t want to go closer, as the little creature must already have been very frightened. I walked away, the dog followed me, and when 10 seconds later I turned to look back, it was gone.

Before I reached the corner, Sara was barking loudly and constantly at something in the tall grass. When I finally got near enough to see a flash of bright white and some black, I knew it was a skunk and turned in the other direction, calling Sara. She came, and hadn’t been sprayed, so that was a lucky break. Otherwise we would not be too happy to have Sara camped out on the deck outside our door, where she sleeps at night.

I got back to the yard just as the schoolbus was dropping off the kids. Emil, coming toward me along the driveway, grinned widely and told me he was going to stay outside for a while and walk around. I remembered him as a baby and as a small child, and thought I could never have imagined him turning out as he has — the way he looks, for instance. So many changes since he was a little guy carried everywhere on my right hip.

He was left alone with a plate of spaghetti and a pot of Scott’s fantastic tomato soup — prizewinning, I say, if there was a contest — while Everett and I went to town for his piano lesson. He is happily into this new venture, and Emil is going to start next week. It will be good for his fine motor skills and since he likes music as he does, maybe it will give him something new to be excited about. And a challenge.

Coming back home, when Everett and I turned off the road and into the dark driveway, there was a flash of white on the road ahead. It was a furry beastie, quickly turning around and scurrying back to the pasture. I swung the headlights to follow it — a badger! I wonder if that could be what has killed two young cats in the yard lately? One was found behind our house, the other, just a kitten, in the loft. They both had a bloody, chewed spot on their necks. But I would expect a badger, coyote, or owl to eat them, not just kill them. My first thought when the cats were found was that a weasel had done them in. I hope it isn’t Sara doing the damage.

No sooner did I call my friend yesterday afternoon and make an appointment for massage, than my shoulder and arm stopped aching. Explain that one. They feel totally normal today. But I'm off for that massage anyway.

*According to the illustration and information in my book Animal Tracks of Western Canada, it was an ermine. I didn't even know we had ermine around here. Still learnin', see?