Eastern Mono Squirrel

Okay, actually a gray squirrel, but works in mono, right?  Especially on an ice covered background.  This is one of the recently "fledged" broods, several of whom were industriously digging in the ice where there were a bunch of hickory nuts just under the surface.  I have to suppose they sniffed them out.  Rather lucky for this one that the fox pair weren't around.  Not all of the will be so lucky.

Although it is warmer today, the winds are gusting to 40 MPH so it feels much colder.  Even so, I navigated down the yard to the street, avoiding the sheet of ice at the bottom of our driveway and took Jax for a short walk.  He was mostly good, wanting to stop and sniff everything, which is fine.  Things took a turn when I spotted a neighbor's yellow lab in their yard without her electric fence collar on.  It always takes her a few minutes to realize she's not "fenced" and I was hoping we could turn around and retreat but no such luck.  Happily, she isn't an aggressive dog, but I also don't really know how she is with other dogs so I made Jax sit and then baited him with treats until we got out of the immediate area.  She watched us with hackles all raised but tail wagging.  Hopefully her owners got her back with no problem.  

Had a nice long chat with my parents this morning.  We talked a bit about their friend who passed away this week.  It was a shock to them, too, and has left them both feeling ...unresolved.  In these times of Covid, coming to grips with the passing of people is so much harder, for so many reasons.  

Hubs went to see his mom who is continuing to beat all the odds and is doing well.  SIL is coming over shortly to go over some finances with her brother.  I'll make myself scarce.

Still trying to clean up the PC.  It has already taken nearly 24 hours and the damned Recycle Bin is still deleting.  It was a massive amount of files, but really...24 hours?

Dark, from Uganda, with rice.

xo
Debbi