Nighttime Raid!

The things I do for people!!!  Just after dark, Mark answered the telephone...it was his niece.  She was on her way to our house.  Hmmm...Ok?  It is a rare occasion when someone visits the Little Bayou House much after dark.  I am presuming the long, dark lane that leads to the house might have something to do with that or...perhaps the shrieks and howls of the critters leave some a bit ill at ease.  Anyway, she was heading our way.  I do appreciate the fact that this niece always calls ahead of time to let us know that she will be visiting.  (Again, that might be just out of uneasiness!)  It seems that she wanted a few grapefruit and was nearby, so she thought she might as well make a quick stop.  As soon as he hung up the phone, I grabbed a flashlight and a dishpan.  Out the door and into the darkness I went!  Might I mention at this point, there are not streetlights on the Bayou..only the moon and the stars light the area at night.  Just as I opened the door, there she stood waiting with open arms to give me a much-welcomed hug!  I would do most anything for this sweet girl...even if it means heading out to the fruit trees in the pitch-blackness of the night.   I was elated to see that the grapefruit shone like beacons up in the tree!  This fact sure made it easier to know just what I was grasping!  I would have hated to grab ahold to some old, crabby raccoon instead of the nice, firm grapefruit!  We picked several dozen of the fruit and then moved to the Satsuma tree.  The limbs of this tree are breaking with the sheer weight of the fruit so it was necessary to pick some...I might as well impose a few of those on her!  She seemed mightily grateful which always makes it a tad easier to toss in a few extra!

After she left with her bounty, I decided to head back outside to photograph the fruit at night.  This proved a mite interesting as no sooner had I made the trek to the citrus trees than I heard a strange noise.  Yip...yip...yip.  Wait a minute...coons do not yip!  Fox!  I swirled around and flashed the light in the general area...aha!  Eyes reflected back at me from beneath the blackberry vines!  Reddish-orange eyes stared back at me!  It is unusual to ever actually catch a fox's eyes in the beam of a flashlight.  They are smart and quick!  The only reason that I caught this one is that I fully surprised it by stepping back outside so soon after my niece left.  Perhaps it had little ones out and about which would account of the constant yipping.  If that was the case, I needed to be out of the area.  A good motto is to never tangle with any wild animal defending their young!  Whatever the reason, I decided it was time to head back inside!  The little fox could go about its business without any disturbance from me!