"Opossum on the Half Shell"

 The past 3 weeks or so when I have taken Bella for an evening walk out in the West pasture up here on the ridge, she has found an armadillo that seems to have taken up residence in a series of abandoned groundhog dens over by the former milk barn.

In this pic he has retreated from her to a place of relative security between two large tires on a truck that has been parked out there for a few years.  Groundhogs have excavated a den under there.  I've no clue why Gary has that mall there.  I need to snag it and bring it back to the house.


Bella is by breed a herding dog, so it is in little danger of being killed or injured by her.  It is rather funny because when she comes across it out in the field she will freeze, duck her head, and creep toward it.  Armadillos have poor vision and are always preoccupied with foraging so you can usually get quite close to them, especially if they are in the weeds.  So sometimes Bella will hover over it for a few seconds before it notices her.  It will freeze for a bit then do one of a couple things: run or jump.  Once it made a long leap straight into her face and then ran away.  She follows it of course, through the weeds.  Usually it will head for the above truck wheels.  Once it got between the tires where there is just a shallow hole.  It left its rear and tail sticking out.  Bella would woof and grab at it, but she'd never hang on to the tail.  Then she'd go to the other side of the tires and make it back up, so she'd run to the other side again to try and see it face to face, upon which it would turn tail again, grunt at her and violently kick dirt in her face.  Ellen and I stood watching this spectacle for ten minutes or so laughing at Bella's dirt covered face.  But then we leashed her up and came home. 

Last night I happened to have her on the leash headed back to the house when we came upon the armadillo.  I was able to get a few pictures and videos of them interacting.


It took awhile for it to notice us, we had to get quite close.  It made a rush or 2 to get away, but as soon as it realized we weren't going to give chase, it just went right back to foraging, even coming back close to us.  

They are nothing but pests, serving no real purpose here in Missouri, plus they can carry leprosy.  But they are fascinating little creatures.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy.
Read more