June 10: A huntress lives under my bunk

It's 5 PM on Friday, getting to the evening of a day of using the pressure cooker to make chickpeas, making salsa using a knife and everything, and finding just the right mix of chocolate and dry milk for a creditable hot chocolate. And it took till now to have today's adventure. And I feel sick to my stomach.

I mentioned the supply of lemmings earlier. I don't remember if I've mentioned that I can hear them skittering about between the wood and the insulation. A little unnerving, but - well, it's wet outside and where else are they going to go? Sitting at my computer (I *must* get some Seattle work accomplished so it isn't pulling at my brain when the fishing gets heavy), I noticed one of the little rodents running across the vinyl flooring under the table toward my feet. It spotted those feet and immediately went the other direction. Though Sage usually passes her time under my bunk, she was out here occupying the middle of the cabin floor. She too detected the movement, and unlike me, she jumped toward the intruder and attacked it, getting it in her mouth and giving it a good shake. Then she dropped it and that's when my stomach noticed its opinion of the whole operation. She was nosing it and trying to figure out how to pick its carcass up without getting it on her lips, I think (do dogs have lips?).

With visions of her hauling her catch back under the bunk, something I wouldn't want to smell in a few days, I hurried out to the porch for a couple of dustpans to pick it up and take it outside. When I got back, I realized that it was alive - leaking, with a hind leg not working well, but alive. Ugh. More stomach objections. I still picked it up with the dustpan and took it outside. I don't know how badly hurt it was, but it seemed to be managing gamely, so I set it down in the grass, wishing it luck. Was it The Mouse and the Motorcycle? Was his name Ralph? This one was pretty cute, too (except for the leaking and the dragging hind leg).

That activity must have awakened Sage's appetite as she has now settled down to her dog food, which she had been ignoring for most of the day.

I kind of want to tie strings around my pantlegs, making sure they are securely closed.