armadillo toe

My toe hurts. I might have broken it this morning kicking an armadillo's butt. No, really, I really did kick an armadillo. My dog kept barking at an armadillo. I saw it turn and chase her. When I went out, it came onto my patio toward me!! I shouted and threw things. I was so mad, when it turned around, I kicked its rear. Three of them were just meandering around my house, annoying my dog.

I threw rocks and pieces of fallen tree limbs. I could tell I hit one good, because it ricocheted up in the air the way they do, and I almost expected to hear the chimes of a pinball score. When I had kicked the 'dillo, it didn't move or budge at all. So I guess I learned that lesson - GOLF, not SOCCER!

My other dog, Mischief, killed an armadillo in our yard once. She barked, startled it, and it jumped straight up in the air about 3 feet. But when it landed, it missed the garden area and fell down onto the lower story patio about ten feet below. It remained motionless, and my daughter-in-law and I poked it with a stick, and it was kerput. I wouldn't touch it, but got a towel and dragged it over and threw it downhill. I called Mischief "Killer" for a while, but I guess she didn't really do it - the animal committed suicide.

Come stay at our house overnight. If you hear leaves rusting quite loudly at 2 or 3 a.m. - it's not burglars or deer. It's probably the armadillos. If some evening you hear gunshots down below - it's not gangs or drive-bys. It's the neighbor shooting the armadillos. He hates them. They dig up the garden and yard.