Mid-January Critters

Winter in Virginia has always been unpredictable. This winter has been colder than the last few years, but the temperature got pretty mild today. I saw my neighbor getting her mail and she was wearing sandals.

The picture of the cow is from yesterday. Much of our snow melted today, but we’re supposed to get another snowstorm tomorrow. A bitter cold spell is coming to most of the USA. 

Yesterday afternoon I finally got my car back from Malloy Toyota where it has been for repair. This was a frustrating experience because it took them several months to get the parts, and then four weeks to complete the repairs mostly because some of the parts that were sent were wrong. The repairs were interior work made necessary by my nervous dog who chewed on a couple of seatbelts and other items while I was driving. This happened in spite of having a doggy seat cover and plenty of chew toys. 

Fortunately, much of the expense was covered by insurance. I’ll give Charlie the chance to write a few words at the end of this post. But first, I’ll show you some animals that I saw on Tuesday.

I went to the dentist and the news was not good. The pain that I had been feeling in tooth number 31 was due to a nerve that was dying under the crown. So I need a root canal or an extraction. I’m going to see an endodontist this week. 

There was a squirrel outside the window of the dental office.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went up to Skyline Drive after seeing the dentist. The road had been reopened after getting cleared out of snow and falling trees. Since then, it has closed down again due to the impending snowstorm. 

The speed limit on Skyline Drive is only 35 mph and it’s even slower in developed areas like Dickey Ridge. I always watch for deer there because they frequent the roadside. When you see one in the road, stop and then wait a minute because there might be more.

I paused at the parking lot to see the view and glimpsed a bird flying over.

A little farther south, another animal crossed the road. I don’t see raccoons very often, and this poor fellow was limping. He made it across the road and disappeared into the woods.

Even though I didn’t drive far, I saw some more deer. I guess they were out looking for food on this sunny afternoon.

As promised, here’s Charlie to say a few words.

<<I’m glad we got our car back. I haven’t been to the park in a month because I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere in the loaner car.  Mom said we are starting car training all over. Today we just went around the corner and she gave me some dog treats. I watch her drive but she doesn’t tell me much about how to do it. Maybe that part of the training starts later.

I’ve been bored this week because we didn’t go to the park. Walking around the neighborhood is not much fun because there’s cold stuff all over the ground, and until the grass showed up today, there wasn’t much to sniff. I haven’t seen any dogs except at the vet’s office. 

I didn’t mean to hurt her car. I wanted to stop being scared. The car shakes and makes noise. I think if I were driving, I would not be scared.>>