When you live by yourself

in the woods, your dog, your cat they are your intruder detector. You should listen to them. When your cat is looking out the living room window, then suddenly bristles up and runs and hides in the basement, this is a clue something may be outside. Same when the dog suddenly starts barking at 3am. Of course sometimes the clue something may be amiss is so apparent even human senses can detect it.

We were supposed to get 6 inches of snow today. But it hung around 2 or 3 Celsius all day, so the amount actually on the ground was much less.



It is below 0 C now, so the morning will probably be icy, but tomorrow is supposed to be about 11C, so I expect there will be a lot of soggy mud in my yard by 4pm.

My current cats are not big fans of water. Frozen water they like even less. My Maine Coon ventured out. He got as far as the edge of the brick porch when a small clump of snow slipped off the roof and landed on his head with a ploof.. That ended his interest in going out for the last 15 hours.

I decided to try a new to me product tonight.



Followed the directions and it came out looking (w/spaghetti) almost exactly like the package picture.



Tasted pretty good too. Washed it down with Pepsi and capped it off with Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls with icing and a glass of milk.

After their dinner one of my other cats decided it was his turn to go out. Remember what I said about those subtle clues? It was totally dark by then.
He, like the other cat, got as far as the edge of the brick work and was dabbing at the snow with one paw while giving me a questioning, 'is it safe look?'
I told him it is fine, go ahead. Before he could do so, out of the darkness came a fairly large and unmistakable growl. My cat looked at me, I looked at the cat, and we both turned around and went back inside, barring the door behind us. Nope, my senses ain't that sharp, but even this dumb human got that hint.

I will look in the daylight to see if it left tracks to identify what it was/is. Yeah, sure flashlight and a shotgun crunching through the ice trying to find it. LoL, why? Shotgun is inside where it warm, so am I and my hot cocoa. What I know, not a dog. Not a house cat. I know both growls. Something different. Things occasionally eat the deer in my woods. I know this because now and then I find pieces of the deer. Turkey are legal on Turkey Day of course. So are the deer. What made the growl is curiosity to me. My real motivation for tomorrow is deer and turkey. However, I trust the judgment of my cat. He heard it and decided to go back inside at once. I trust his judgment.