A BIRD IN THE HAND

Over the fence and in a tree located in the green belt sits a hawk.  It's on a mission knowing that Bob has issues with rodents and needs help. 

Damn, that's a magnificent looking bird. 

It comes.  It goes.  The hawk always seems to be around.  There's now need to watch the smallest of our dogs, Zoe, when she ventures outside.  Weighing less than five pounds Zoe would make a treasure of a morsel for the hawk.  Might be a little tough to haul Zoe out of the backyard but from what I read it can be done and actually it has been done to other pups living in our area.

I think the hawk will do well to help us control the rodents who come and go in the garage all while living just over the fence.

After a week of continuous baiting in the garage and continuous munching from the rodents, yesterday was the first day that it seemed that there had been no activity on the bait stations.  Like a whole bunch of bait had been eaten.  I was beginning to think that we had a strain of mice resistant to the bait.  I did find evidence of bait that had been taken into the engine compartment and eaten.  Hmmmm.

Now we have a family of moles living in the front and back lawns.  More rodents to contend with.  Is this my destiny?  Having been unsuccessful in the past in riding our lawn of these critters (I'd uncover one of their underground paths, plant a smoke bomb in it - available at any hardware store - cover it back up and think I've killed my prey - - - - but that never happened) - - - - it's best to call our friend Roger who makes a business of trapping moles and gophers.  He's an expert and does his job well without using smoke bombs (but oh how I loved using them).

Roger is always busy trapping these rodents.  If he's not trapping them for the golf course Roger is trapping them in and around Cowtown.  Roger estimates he's killed thousands and I believe it. 

Way back in the day WWII fighter aircraft would display a symbol for each enemy aircraft it shot down.  More than once I suggested to Roger that he paint a gopher or mole on the side of his truck for every critter he knocked off.  Roger scoffed at the idea  knowing well that had he painted a rodent on his truck for every kill that it would be covered in critters.  I make that suggestion each time Roger comes to trap rodents in the lawn.  And Roger still scoffs at my suggestion.  If you knew Roger you'd understand that he's like that.  He's a scoffer.

Grace loves to watch Roger set his traps and delights in seeing what prize is lifted from a hole in the ground on his return.  I ask Roger to leave the dead critter and tell him that Grace loves eating grilled rodent on rice for dinner.  Grace, on hearing this request of mine for the umpteenth time makes a face then screams and runs in the house. 

Like Roger, Grace scoffs at a lot of my ideas.  But if I didn't make off the wall suggestions I wouldn't be Bob, would I?