The Birds

here in my queendom it's sounding like a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds ... the grapes in the vineyard are ripening and the birds have come from everywhere else to feast on them. Periodically, the bird cannon up in the vineyard booms... sending all that swarm of birds into the air yelling at each other about their interrupted meal. it reminds me of my dad's story from years ago before they had the cannons. he was walking around the vineyard with a shot gun trying to scare them off and fired off one that didn't actually go just up in the air as usual, but ricocheted off a tree and hit a deer that was wandering thru in search of a grape snack. unbelievably, it killled the deer! Dad was mortified! he's not a hunter of animals, so being an upstanding citizen, he call the dept. of wildlife and asked them what to do with it.. and they gave him instructions and said they'd be out to get the deer. they arrived, gave him a ticket for killing a deer without a license or permit or tag or whatever it's called.... and told him he'd have to go to court... AND they took the deer away. he had to appear before a judge, tell his story, get a lecture and pay a fine. too bad he didn't know about the SSS creed i lived by when i had sheep and lambs in the pasture and saw a dog trying to get in with them... nah, i never did the shoot, shovel and shut up thing. i only had a bb gun, but did threaten... and there were neighbor dog-owners who seemed to believe me.

the noise is taking a toll on Tasha-the-dog-who-is-scared-of-her-shadow (really!!), so i moved her pillow to a place where the sound is muffled and she lies there with Meika on the floor beside her keeping her company.