The Battle Rages On

Yesterday afternoon A. and I were upstairs when we heard frenzied barking from downstairs. We ran downstairs, eventually discovering the three big dogs circling the washing machine in the Pit of Despair. A., being the brave and courageous one, grabbed a flashlight and went down to investigate further. I, being the sissy one, stayed on the top part of the stairs ready to flee into the house and slam the door if anything flew out from under the washing machine.

You'll recall that I have some justification for being wary of the washing machine.

We could hear whatever it was that was cornered under the machine. A. said it sounded like a rattlesnake. We don't have rattlesnakes here (THANK GOD--as if I don't have enough to worry about), and I suggested that it sounded like an animal chattering its teeth, which some animals do as a warning when they're mad. Like woodchucks. One of the many useful pieces of knowledge I have acquired since moving here.

Sure enough, A. and his flashlight discovered a large woodchuck pressed up there behind the washing machine, chattering angrily at the three big dogs. And at A. when he tried to poke it out with a piece of pipe. At least, that's what he told me he was going to do. I didn't actually see it, because I had retreated upstairs and shut the door by that time.

What a pansy I am.

Anyway, after a minute I cautiously opened the door and asked A. if he wanted me to get the dogs out of there so he could take care of the woodchuck. He, however, being a sensible sort of man, decided there was no point in him risking getting bit when there were three large dogs right there salivating to tear that woodchuck into pieces for him. So he lifted the washing machine about a foot, whereupon Leda the Fluffball launched herself into the narrow opening and pulled out the woodchuck. I was standing at the top of the stairs, where I couldn't see what was happening, but I could hear. There was a brief skirmish, and then the woodchuck was no more.

Leda is not a dog to be trifled with. Makes you look at Lassie in a whole new way, doesn't it?

Incidentally, Otty was right there on the other side of the machine, positioned like a proper member of the hunting pack to get the woodchuck if it tried to retreat that way. And where was Mia? Standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching. Not so much a hunter, my dog. Unless there are baby rabbits. She's fierce with those baby rabbits.

That's the second woodchuck Leda has dispatched in the past week. I can only hope that any woodchucks remaining in the area have enough good sense to stay off our property. They can come to no good end here as long as Leda is around.