We are blessed to be purchasing a house that is right across the street from a nice park. We've been here now for almost two years and it's nice to be able to open the front door, cross the street and be under trees and hear the birds singing.

During the national lockdown a couple years ago, several of us in the neighborhood started meeting around 5:30 p.m. each day to let our dogs play together. We'd sit around on some old log ends, keeping "social distancing", dutifully wearing our facemasks and staving off the cabin fever. Even after they called off the absurdity, we still meet most days, unless it's raining really hard.

I started giving the occasional dog biscuit to the canines that were around at 6:00 p.m., folks started giving me a couple bucks here or there to help defray the cost and every cent they give gets rolled into the "biscuit fund" and invested in the treats. Recently there was a sale and I told folks about it. We ended up buying three boxes of biscuits besides the one I'd bought when we first got back so we had a good supply, should last us to the end of the year, I thought.

I opened the most recent box around October 1st, and yesterday I dumped the last of them into the plastic container I take to the park. Odd, that box should have lasted us a month or more, especially with recent low attendance and thus low consumption due to heavy afternoon rains we've had a lot of recently.

Later in the evening Biscuit, our pitbull/bulldog bitch, kept going into the pantry and acting VERY interested in something in there. So I finally got up from the table where I'd been partaking of a nice, hot, lemon and panela drink and started moving things out of the pantry. Once I moved the boxes of dog biscuits I saw a pile of them laying loose behind where they'd been! Right away I knew what we were dealing with, some rodent had decided to make our house his home and figured he'd hit the big time what with all those biscuits in a loosely closed box! Of course the little thieves can't content themselves with nabbing the occasional or daily morsel and leave it at that. No, they've got to carry off as much as they can!

After shifting a lot of our supplies, implements, and junk that had accumulated in there I found another pile of dog biscuits in another corner, and saw the beady eyed bandit but he didn't stay around there waiting for things to get settled, he managed to disappear and I wasn't sure where. So out come the crockpots, pans, and other cooking implements and finally I saw him again, down by the steel leg of the shelving.

I'd grabbed the Crosman 2240 with Crooked Barn breech and a 1322 barrel on it, but the little bugger chose a position where I couldn't get a clear head shot, so I let him have the AirArms 16 grain round nose pellet somewhere "in the big part" that I COULD see. That put a hurt on him and he shifted to under a plastic shelf against the other wall. Again, the confined space didn't allow for a clear shot but I popped one "into the mass somewhere" and he tried a run for the door (which my helpful wife was holding closed against such an endeavor) where I was standing. In the confusion the third (and last) pellet I'd brought down for the job was chambered and then negligently discharged against the floor as I tried to stomp the charging rodent. The muzzle was pointed in a safe direction, but the trigger finger didn't get out of the trigger guard. The beady eyed bandit tired of my dance moves and retreated back under the plastic shelf and my wife headed upstairs to bring the tin of pellets.

The two projectiles and the number 10 shoe had taken the edge off the little guy's enthusiasm and he stayed where he was until I got another round chambered and contorted myself to where I could point the pistol at his bulk under the shelf. This time he didn't move much on impact and I scooted the shelf out of the way and plunked him again. Then I grabbed one of the "dog duty baggies", bagged him up and carried him out to the park's refuse bin.

We were able to rescue enough dog biscuits to get us through the rest of the month. The case of the evaporating dog treats came to a close!