In all of the years I have lived here, I have never been up close and personal with javelina. That is until a recent Wednesday evening.
I was watching television when I heard a loud scraping noise.
Diane, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner, asked me, “What was that noise?”
“I think it came from upstairs. Maybe our neighbors above us are back,” I replied.
About a half hour passed when I heard another strange noise. It sounded like a snort. This time I got up off the couch and looked out the arcadia door, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Then all of a sudden, javelina started appearing all over my patio. We have a small patio at our condo and it doesn’t take much to fill it. It looked like these four adults and one baby were looking for food. Their snouts were raised up with their nostrils opening and closing rapidly.
I called to Diane, “You have got to see this. Our patio is covered with javelina.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The javelinas stayed around for several hours. The tasty morsels they were enjoying were the bean bags from our cornhole game.
They were inside a zippered bag inside the target boards and under a swing on the patio. The game had been stored there since last Christmas when Holly’s girls played it.
We were gone most of last summer and no critters had found their way to the new taste treats. Incidentally, we had no idea what was on the inside of the “bean” bags. It turns out they were filled with dried corn kernels and small pebbles.
They left two of the bean bags untouched. But they did come back looking for crumbs the next day.
There was some additional action when two of the adult javelinas got into a fight and banged into the glass of the arcadia door. One of them bit into the side of the other, leaving a two-inch long gash on his side and blood on our patio.
We knew better than to purposely feed the wild animals that may be living in the wash behind us. But you never know what one of these critters may consider a “tasty morsel.”
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Congratulations to all of the grand prize winners in our “Holidays Cash in the Hills” promotion. Winning the Grand Prize of $500 in Times dollars was Nancy Killian. The second place prize of $300 went to Karen Zubert and the third place prize of $200 was won by Michelle Myatt.
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For the next two editions, residents and businesspeople must observe different deadlines.
The Dec. 26 edition will be printed Monday morning. To meet that press time, all ads must be in by 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19. All stories and letters to the editor must be submitted by Friday, Dec. 21, at noon.
Thanks for your cooperation and Happy Holidays to everyone.
