It's A Rough Life ......

...... if you happen to be a member of the wildlife community down here.

Well, I guess it's only a rough life if you unsuspectingly wander into my back yard.
And then it's really not so much a "rough life", as it is a life that's most likely over.

So ...... Sunday night I let the dogs out (Who let the dogs out, who, who, who-who, oh whatever).
They were outside about 20 minutes or so, doing their nightly thing before going to bed.
Or so I thought.

I brought them back in and thought we'd all sit down and relax before bed time.
But I was wrong.
Jesse waited all of about 3 minutes and then started going over to the door.  And then over to me, trying to get me to let her out.
Now you need to know that, for the most part, Jesse lies around the house.
She rarely acts like she's just dying to get outside.
Sometimes she even has to be forced to go out.

But that night she bugged me for at least an hour, wanting to go back out.
I, however, have little patience for dogs bugging me when they've just been out and had ample opportunity to relieve themselves, eat grass, roll in manure or whatever it is that they love doing outside.
So I wouldn't give in to her.  And she finally gave up and laid down.

About 10 minutes or so after that I was getting ready to go to bed so I called them over to tell them good night.
Yes, I tell the dogs good night every night.  Why do you ask?

Well, for the first time that night I noticed that she had a rust coloring on her head and on the back of her neck.  So I took her over to a lamp and looked more closely at her.  And saw that she had a row of small puncture wounds from the top of her nose, all down her face past her mouth.
Puncture wounds in the shape of a mouth.
A mouth with lots of very sharp teeth.
I was shocked.
And wondered what the heck had happened.

I was also a bit freaked out.  I couldn't imagine what had bitten her, especially since I hadn't heard them bark ...... or yelp.
Koda and Jesse "horse around" all of the time.  They'll tease each other and sort of playfully "mouth" on each other's face, but they've never bit down or hurt each other.  But the only thing I could figure, is that Koda must've accidentally bit down on her and caused those wounds.
He was very concerned about her that night after they came in.  He kept coming up to her and licking her face and ears.  In fact, that's what caused me to look closer at her in the first place ...... what made me see the rust (blood).
I was wondering how in the heck she could stand having him lick on her like that, without snapping at him and telling him to back off!

Son #3 got home late that night so I didn't have a chance to tell him about the bite marks.  So the next morning I went into his room/their room early in the morning to check on her and see how her face looked.  It was a bit swollen, but didn't look infected or anything.  I woke him up and told him briefly about the bite, and that I guess Koda had done it.  I told him to keep an eye on her and to let me know if she started acting sick or her face got worse.
And then I left to go play tennis on the other side of town.

Later that afternoon he sent me a text saying that he didn't think Koda bit Jesse.  I agreed and asked what the heck could be in our back yard that had done that?
Then he texted, "I think this did" and sent this picture:

And then Oh-My-Goodness I did indeed have a little freak out.
Because REALLY?!  A dead raccoon in my driveway?!  A very large, dead raccoon at that.
Just laying at the top of my driveway.
Where he had either been left, or had crawled over to, right before he flipped over and gave up the ghost.

So there you go.
Welcome to the 'hood.
Where we live dangerously.

Look these faces.  Who'd of thunk?!

I actually took this picture right after I let them back into the house.  If you zoom in you can see the bite marks on the right side of her face.

And ...... is it just me ...... or are those two faces full of guilt?

Happy Wednesday/Thursday, Peeps.
Keep an eye on your dogs.
:)