What was that?

Wanna know what I was doing at 1am this morning? Hunting R.O.U.S.'s! Or so I thought. Turns out, it was most likely an armadillo. Cute and dumpy and dumb as a rock. But, as it turns out, really loud!

Poor Pancho has been an outside doggie since we got here. He was silly enough to get himself covered in stickers the moment we arrived, and I just haven't had a moment to go out, pick them out, bath him, check him for bugs, and then bring him inside. Soooo - he's on guard out there in the night.

He's taken to ranch life pretty well actually. The other evening, he chased a Coyote. He's also rustled up some deer, a few squirrels, and heaven forbid a mocking bird try to land near him! But this..... this had him puzzled.

There's a screen door just off the master. It's been so lovely at night, that we've left it open. I love to hear the crickets and the wind in the trees - but I didn't exactly plan on this particular noise. It started as a rustle off in the distance. Pancho (who has taken to sleeping in front of the screen door so I can hear him pouting) immediately took off running and barking.

A few minutes pass. Nothing. Pancho returns - but he's dazed and looking a bit bewildered. Pretty soon there are some major loud noises coming from under the deck that connects to the back of the house. I figured it was Fergus, so I got up to yell at him. I nearly jumped out of my socks when I stepped out the screen onto the deck and something moved under my feet. And then a second later, another something moved just to the side of me. I squealed, jumped back into the house, and stared calling to JL. :)

His first response was - it's probably cats. But then the noise got louder and louder. It sounded like something was fighting with a plastic bag under the deck. Turns out - it was digging. Digging through a layer of dead leaves that crackled and rustled like a bag. Soon, dirt was flying up through the slats in the wood decking. At this point, we're thinking possum or raccoon. Thing is, the intruder isn't afraid of us at all. We're standing right atop of it, and it's not bothered at all. I would guess a possum would hiss or a raccoon would make their raccoon noise. But we got nothin' from this beast.

I stared thinking bunnies or (heaven forbid) skunks, but the thing seemed too large to be either of those things. So.... I grabbed my laptop, JL grabbed a flashlight and Grandma. I visited this site. We felt confident now, so we got brave....

JL approached the corner of the house where the dirt was flying and the noise was coming from and shined the flashlight right into a slat. At the same time, Grandma inched further out of the screen door to get a better look. Funny thing - our screen door needs to be oiled. Like really bad. So when you open it - it makes a terrible squealing noise. You should have seen the 3 of us jump! HA!

After we gathered ourselves, we tried to see the creature again. Suddenly there was a huge burst of running, digging and then silence. Whatever it was had gone deep underground and wasn't coming back out again. Infact, we didn't hear from our friend again until dawn. At that time, Pancho woofed, a rustling noise was heard, and then nothing. I don't know if it left, if it decided to ride out the daytime in the hole, or what. But you can bet we'll be hearing from it again tonight.

Anyone have any suggestions for getting rid of our fine friend? Any tested and true methods?


UPDATE (6:42am 5/7/11) - I just saw the little guy. Or should I say the little gal. Looks like a mom dillo and her babies. I was able to count 4 little ones until Fergus came over and scared them all back into the hole. He stood there and woofed at them while they kicked dirt up in his face. :) Pancho just observed.

UPDATE (5:30am 5/8/11) - There has been an incident. The great Dillo massacre of 2011. Turns out my old, arthritic Malamute Fergus loves a good dillo chase. He was able to take out 3 of the 5 this morning. Nothing like scooping up dillo's on Mothers' Day morning!

We took the opportunity to stuff moth balls down the hole under our deck just in case those cute (but stupid) remaining ones try to return. (As far as I can tell, the mom and one baby are still alive.) Shortly after clean up, the mother came back from hiding to look for her kids. Pancho and Fergus met her instead and she ran for the woods. Something tells me after this morning, the dillos won't be taking up residence again under our deck.