{"id":1973,"date":"2008-03-31T14:06:23","date_gmt":"2008-03-31T18:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/stumped\/"},"modified":"2008-04-01T12:06:56","modified_gmt":"2008-04-01T16:06:56","slug":"stumped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/stumped","title":{"rendered":"Stumped"},"content":{"rendered":"

It starts out with dog-blogging, and then it gets weird.<\/p>\n

Rufus & I are pretty schedule-oriented. He seems to like steady routines, to the point at which he hasn’t figured out yet that weekends are the time to sleep in. I’m hoping he’ll learn.<\/p>\n

Typically, we get up around 5am, and I take him outside shortly after. I tend to forget to grab the flashlight, so I just turn an outside light on by the back door, and let my eyes adjust as we head around the corner of the house where, last May, a tree came down and nearly took out a corner of my house. I sawed a chunk of it down, but a tall stump remains, as does one significant log. Rufus considers that area his bathroom, and that’s worked out fine so far.<\/p>\n

This morning, I led him over there, and he kept sniffing at the stump and tugging slightly on his leash. He wasn’t out of control, so I figured he was spooked by a noise. I led him to the other corner of the yard, and he took care of business.<\/p>\n

Around 7:30am, I took him out for his second bathroom break. He once again focused on that stump, but this time it was daylight.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hmm. Maybe I can pull a “CSI” and increase the resolution . . .<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yep! That’s what I thought: Rocky Raccoon is making his bed in that treestump. Better take Rufus back inside, then investigate further:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rocky’s awfully darned cute, too! Why, I’m just lucky he and Rufus have some sort of non-aggression pact going, because this could’ve gotten pretty chaotic in the pre-dawn darkness. Wait — what’s that, Rocky?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Buy you plush squeaky toys?<\/p>\n

As you command . . .<\/p>\n

(UPDATE! Rocky was still here when I got home in the evening! I tossed some rocks at the side of the stump to scare him into leaving, but he was barely responsive. I lobbed one in, and he just flexed a paw, so it’s pretty obvious to me what happened: he was mortally wounded after crash-landing here from another world<\/a> and needs to bestow a power ring that will enable its bearer to defend this portion of the universe from all manner of threats. Now the real question is, who’s the ring intended for: me, Amy, or Rufus?)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It starts out with dog-blogging, and then it gets weird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis","category-suburbs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4C7K-stumped","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2367,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bear-arms","url_meta":{"origin":1973,"position":0},"title":"Bear arms","author":"Gil","date":"September 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've had a bunch of bear sightings this summer. On my drive home from work two weeks ago, I saw a bear wandering around the soccer field of a local grade school. I called the police about it when I got home a few minutes later, since the field was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1990,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-raccoon-whisperer","url_meta":{"origin":1973,"position":1},"title":"The Raccoon Whisperer","author":"Gil","date":"April 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I wrote about the raccoon who took up residence in a tree stump in my backyard. I came up with several theories to explain its presence there. He may have been: rabid, the reincarnation of Abin Sur, a MOVE-like squatter, or the victim of a Nigerian time-share scam.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/raccrehab.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2717,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hut-hut-hike","url_meta":{"origin":1973,"position":2},"title":"Hut-hut-HIKE!","author":"Gil","date":"October 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For weeks now, we've been meaning to join the Hiking Greyhounds group at Wawayanda State Park. These grey owners hike every Sunday at 9 a.m., but we've had various reasons (read: made various excuses) not to join them. This weekend, we figured, was likely the last one for great foliage,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3188\/2955621627_5d26bd685e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2078,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-aint-nothing-but-a-sight-hound","url_meta":{"origin":1973,"position":3},"title":"You ain’t nothing but a sight-hound?","author":"Gil","date":"May 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Our experience with Rufus has been pretty awesome. Outside of his inclination to bring home every tick in Ringwood -- Amy thinks it's because they keep mistaking him for a deer -- we don't really have much to complain about. I'm still afraid to leave him on his own in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2419,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/six-month-chipmunkiversary","url_meta":{"origin":1973,"position":4},"title":"Six-month chipmunkiversary","author":"Gil","date":"September 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"On our evening walk yesterday, it occurred to me that it had been six months since Rufus joined our home! I felt bad about missing the anniversary, but since we brought him home in the evening(ish) last March, I figured he wasn't holding it against us. 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Rufus, as you can see, is thrilled by this news: It's like I give him knockout drops or something.","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}