Never A Dull Moment

I accompanied my uncle to a doctor’s appointment today. While I was away from the house, Jamie heard the pups raising a ruckus out back and stepped outside to find Roscoe slinging an armadillo around by the base of its tail. Not a small armadillo but a full grown big guy. (We assume boy because of his size, but I don’t know that for a fact.). It took some doing, but Jamie finally managed to get Roscoe to drop the poor thing. Still alive and spunky, the armadillo scurried across the yard with Jamie trying to direct it toward the back gate while simultaneously trying to keep Roscoe away from it. An impossibility though, and the little fella zigged when he should have zagged & ran under the camper that serves as my greenhouse.

Jamie locked the pups in the house and tried to convince the armadillo to come out from under the camper. “I have to get you outta here before she (meaning me) gets home or things will get complicated.” Frightened and a bit injured on its tail, one hind leg, and ears, it refused to budge. I arrived home to see this…

I know the reputation armadillos have, but I’m a huge softie for almost all living creatures—flies, mosquitoes, and roaches being the exception—and I felt so bad for this guy. We needed to get him out of the backyard so the pups could come back outside, but putting him just outside the fence wouldn’t keep him from coming back. I toldJamie that instead of chasing him out of the yard, we needed to catch him and release him in a more wildlife friendly area. And there’s the “complicated” to which Jamie earlier referred.

It took some doing, we—mostly Jamie—corralled the big guy into a garbage can.

Big boy. But he was quiet and still; I’m sure he was exhausted. I put some water in there for him, and I applied Manuka honey to his ears and the base of his tail. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but I hope it’s enough to aid a little in his healing.

We drove him to a wooded area and released him. He was limping a bit on one hind leg and his tail was stained with blood. But he wasn’t actively bleeding or trailing blood, and he moved very quickly.

He’s got a better chance out there than he would hanging around my yard. Roscoe is serious about guarding his yard from critters.