A snap shot:
Eleven AM; I was sitting at my computer when Uriah starts to bark. He was outside in the kennel, which is outside the window next to my computer.
There are two windows in the room where I do my writing. One faces south. When I look through that window I can see a lattice wooden fence, my neighbor’s barn, an odd amount of leafless trees, a Blue Spruce, Mulberry tree, one small Lilac bush. Add in an expanse of grass in-between me, and all those things I just described. Also, outside that southern facing window, to the left, is an old rosebush.
The second window faces east.
I am in a room on the lower level of the house. So when I look out any of the windows, I look straight ahead, nearly ground level.
That east facing window has a space of about three feet between the window and Uriah’s outdoor kennel. Which is constructed with sections of, four or six foot wide chain link fencing. I believe the dimensions are twelve by eight feet.
The kennel gate is on the north side. A piece of wooden fencing is also connected to that section, on the outside, next to the gate.
The Southern section, across from the gate, also has wooden fencing covering about three fourths of the chain link. Above the kennel is the deck. The extra wood blocks some of the wind, rain and snow.
Uriah has a dog igloo made of heavy plastic, or PVC- I am guessing at what it’s made of. The ground is paved with light colored bricks.
When I look out the east window, I can see right into Uriah’s kennel, and he can see me at the computer.
Because of the chain link fencing, I can look directly through his kennel, straight onto the vegetable garden, which is about forty feet long; to be exact I would have to measure. Not today..
Beyond the garden is the lawn. The lawn stretches out to the old apple trees, then onto the old evergreens. Behind those sixty foot trees, starts the walking path.
Uriah started barking; I stood up and looked out the window. The snow was coming down heavy, big puffy white flakes. Uriah was wagging his tail and looking east, out over the garden. For a second, I thought he was barking at the rat that steals his food.
I saw the rat, standing in the garden on his hind legs, eating one of Uriah’s milk bone biscuits…
I blinked, trying to focus on the rat. Instead, what I saw was a coyote standing at the edge of the garden.
This all seemed surreal to me. I was watching Uriah and the coyote. The coyote was watching the rat, The rat was watching me. Uriah was still barking at the coyote.
All I needed at that point was for one of my cats to wake up, and jump up on the windowsill.
This would make a great children’s’ book…Unless someone got hurt.
Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seuss_sculpture.jpg