You Never Know What or Whoooo

. . . you'll encounter on the trail.

When I took Maggie and Hubert for a run on the farm this morning, I figured we'd find some downed trees from the recent rains and high winds. Sure enough, there was another tree snapped off and blocking the bottom trail.


But before we walked this bottom trail, we tried to go down the main trail—our usual route. But something was beside the trail. Do you see it?


It made the dogs skid to a halt. They hadn't encountered anything like this before.


Fortunately, they didn't attack. Maggie even left it when I gave the command, "Leave it!"

Yes, Maggie's tail is that muddy!

The hair stood up on Hubert's shoulders and his tail bushed up. The critter bushed up, too. It was a stand-off.


When Hubert realized that Maggie wasn't backing him up, he decided to "leave it," too.


The owl was probably glad the dogs left. I was glad, too. That owl could have done some serious damage to the dogs if it had a mind to.


The dogs and I took an alternate route to the bottom. Later, I heard many crows squawking on the hill. I figured they had chased the owl away, so we came up the trail. The owl, however, had moved about fifty feet down the trail, but it let us pass.

Moments later, I saw another owl fly though the woods and land on a high branch. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were dead, so I couldn't get a picture. When that owl left the tree, the crows started squawking again.

This was the first time I ever saw two owls on the same day—and the only time I've ever seen an owl up close and personal in the wild.

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