It's so easy to see tracks in the snow. When I went out this morning, I could see the tracks I left yesterday when I went to check the mail. I could see the tracks where dh came in last night and left this morning. I could see lots of bird tracks. I could see the tracks left by the neighborhood cat, and I could see some rabbit tracks.
The cat that made the tracks is a plucky kitten that someone dropped off last October. I would have called animal control except that my neighbor took pity on the cat and has fed it and offered it a place of shelter on her porch. I like the fact that it hunts rodents, but I hate that it will probably also hunt baby birds this spring. I always try to shoo it away, but it invariably thinks I'm just playing a game when I do. I hear it fight with the neighbor's other cat on occasion. You have to admire a "new kid on the block" who can make a place for himself that way. Yesterday the cat hurried to find shelter under a vehicle and then from there hurried toward the vacant house next door:
The rabbit tracks went through the back yard and under the apple tree.
Another set of rabbit tracks (possibly the same rabbit) led to the fence.
You can see where the wires are bent and make the perfect place for the rabbit to go through. I think the neighbor's older cat uses this same path (and climbs the fence post right next to these tracks). I once saw a whelk shell on the other side of the fence near this spot. I have several whelk shells that I used to anchor the corners of the Remay in the garden. It was a really nice shell and I started to fetch it, but I wondered if it was really mine: did the neighbors also have seashells about? The only thing I could figure is that the cat took it over the fence. Later when I looked at my shell inventory and realized which one was missing, it was too late; the shell was already gone. I considered asking my neighbor if her cat collected seashells. ;-)
If we had had snow, I wouldn't have been perplexed about the shell mystery.
Do you like looking for tracks?
Tracks in the snow are fascinating. I guess everyone is drawn to track in a smooth blanket of snow. As a kid I used to have a ball with the few snows we had, to try to follow rabbits. It was a fun thing.
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