Neighbors

by carolynholm

Dear Mom,
The water dish in the garden is full of soup!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
It does look like that. But it doesn’t look very appetizing. 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Who did that??????? 
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
Someone who wanted to dip their dinner in some water. 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
The crows! They do that all the time!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
True, they do, but they use the birdbath. I had to scrub it out last week because the crows ripped open a mayonnaise packet there. What a greasy mess.
Love, Carolyn 

Dear Mom,
Maybe the crows decided to try my water bowl!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
My guess is our visitor was a raccoon.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Why did you empty it out? It looked like perfectly good food in there!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
Who knows what it was originally? There were pieces of green onions. And small grains. It looked like the raccoon washed something like sushi and it fell apart in the water. That was one lucky raccoon if he found sushi.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
I should stand guard in the garden, to keep out intruders! 
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
That’s not necessary, sweetie. We like them, for the most part. All those wild neighbors make things interesting. Last month I saw a fox just up the hill from us. And I’m sure there are possums visiting in the night. There’s the Meadow Mice family. The squirrels. I think their nest is in our holly tree. And the Blue Jay couple. There’s always skunks – you had a memorable run-in with one. But surprisingly we don’t have bunnies in this area. Which is probably good news for the vegetable garden. 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
You forgot to mention coyotes!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
You are right! Periodically someone reports seeing a coyote. Which is why the cats are strictly Indoor Cats.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Cats also come to visit! Louis comes here a lot. So does the old calico cat. They are not Indoor Cats.
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
I do worry about Louis and the calico cat. 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
And deer! We have deer neighbors. There’s the lady deer up the street. And the young one who used to hang with her has grown up and sprouted some furry antlers! I saw him by the creek this morning.
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
You shouldn’t bark at them. We just need to keep the gate closed so they can’t get in. They would love to eat our roses and vegetables. As for the rest, I like sharing our garden with wildlife. Except maybe the skunk. But I don’t want you trying to run that guy out of the yard.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
No!!!!! I only needed to make that terrible mistake once.
XOXO Poppy

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