Guess Who Came for Dinner!

The fence is gone.The fence, which kept Joey in, or at least tried to, apparently also kept other animals out. As Robert Frost wrote, in “Mending Wall” –

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out…”

Of course Sandberg was interested in human relationships. But these lines hold true for our situation.

After Joey died, we took down the 4′ fence that kept Joey in. It was not intended to keep other animals out, but with the fence down, and Joey no longer here with us, little by little our yard became populated, first with one bunny, then with two, then even three. And seems now we have a fourth visitor. The birds and squirrels, of course, could always get in!

The days have warmed up here in the northeast and we are wandering outside, inspecting our troops: Our trees, bushes and plants. On this particular day, as I got closer to the perimeter trees, and stroked the long thin branches, felt their springy nature in my palm, I noticed one branch was scraped along its entire top side. I noticed the base of the tree was also scraped bare.

Hmm. An animal. Interesting.

The next day I was showing my husband around, and showed him a different tree, and the entire tree was scraped bare!

It was a nasty winter here in New England.  110″ of snow, hindering the animals’ search for food. We have woods nearby. Another line from Frost:

“He moves in darkness as it seems to me~”

Do you know who our visitor is?

Who moves in darkness?

What do you know about him?