You’re never too old to learn as I discovered again several nights ago.
Each evening, around 10 p.m. we let Mr. Magoo out to do his nightly business. Since there are wolves in the area, both Dick and I go out with him. I make Magoo wait inside as Dick goes ahead. When he gives the all-clear signal, I open the door for the pug.
This particular night, my sweet pug decided he didn’t want to wait, and gave me the slip. There he was, running down the deck and past Dick, heading for the dark.
This was too dicey so I ran after him, yelling his name, but I was stopped by another sound. An eerie, screeching- screaming noise was coming from the South Shore Drive.
We stood guard while Magoo continued to do his business undaunted. (His hearing isn’t so good anymore.) The shrieking sound continued at intervals coming from the road. I’d never heard anything quite like it. Coyotes yip and bark, wolves howl, but what was this?
Once Magoo was safely inside, we stepped out on the deck to further investigate. The screaming continued, but finally moved away. We were perplexed. We went back into the house wondering what that weird noise was and decided to Google “fox mating calls.”
Sure enough, You Tube gave us the answer. What we’d heard was the mating call of foxes. Somewhere on the South Shore Drive lives a very frisky fox.
This year I also learned not to wait too long to plant garlic. It was late October before I finally bought garlic for planting. That was bad enough, but I didn’t plant them until a few days ago with Old Man Winter breathing down my neck.
Grabbing a trowel and hoe, I trotted through the brisk morning air, all set for the task. I lifted the hoe and hit the soil with a whack. Nothing happened. I picked up the trowel to dig a trench. Nothing moved. The topsoil was frozen. A brief moment of panic struck before I remembered the weather forecast called for an afternoon high in the 40s. Thank goodness, the dirt should thaw so I could plant.
Sure enough. Two o’clock rolled around, I went to the garden and the soil was perfect consistency. The garlic bulbs were easy to plant, I covered the rows with straw and bid them farewell till next spring.
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