Each night, we take the boys out right before bed – our three rescue Schnoodles, ready to do their business and settle in for the night. We shine a high-beam flashlight into the woods to see if there is anything out there that looks menacing before we venture out too far – – living deep in these woods of rural Georgia, we never know what could be lurking in the dark at any distance from the door. Two of our dogs must be on a leash, but the third dog begs his daddy for mercy and gets it every time: freedom from restraint.
And that is how Boo Radley (a Schnoodle – – not a coonhound) treed a raccoon week before last.
We heard a sudden scuttle around the corner, and Boo took off like a shooting star straight to the source of the sound. I caught my breath, certain that his time had come. The dog knows no fear. All we heard was claws on pine bark, so we knew something had scurried up into a tree. My first thought was a bobcat – – we see them from time to time, and one had just crossed the road in front of me as I’d driven home a couple of weeks ago. We shone the light up into the trees, searching for whatever it was this time. He’s chased it all – – foxes, stray dogs, feral cats, squirrels, possums, deer, chickens, donkeys, and even a wayward herd of cattle, bull included. This time, a mischievous little raccoon face was staring down at us from the crook of a tree limb, as curious about us as we were about him.
So here we are, with yet another critter that wants to hang out with us here on the east side of the Johnson Funny Farm. We’ve named him Ringo Starr for the rings around his eyes and the shooting star dog that gives chase to anything that moves in these parts. And since it’s coyote mating season on top of everything else, Boo Radley has lost all mercy of being off the leash for night walks.
our Schoodle Boo Radley treed a coon
in the deep, dark night at the edge
of the deeper, darker woods
where we never know what
all lurks by the eyes
shining in the
flashlight beam
back at
us
