Pistols and Predators

Homero told me a story which I just have to put on the blog.

The other evening, Homero was out with the animals giving them their evening feeding. It was the end of a beautiful day, and the sun was just going down. Suddenly, he saw a man climb over the fence from the west, where there is nothing but hundreds of acres of pasture and woods. He was staring into the sun, so he couldn't make out the man's features, but he did notice that the man was carrying a gun in his hand. A pistol. And as he got closer, he saw that the pistol had a silencer attached to it.

At this point, Homero decided to run into the small barn and lock the door. He keeps his machete in there, and he quickly got it down and hunkered against the back wall. He was trying to decide if it would be a good idea to clamber up into the loft in case the man started to shoot through the door when he heard the man calling out "hellooo!" He thought the voice sounded familiar, so he opened the door and there was our neighbor standing there. He had holstered his gun.

Our neighbor wanted to let us know that there was a coyote in the blackberry bushes right along our fence line. He had seen it run in there just as Homero was coming out to the barn, and hadn't we better lock up the chickens and goats tonight? He himself was going to try to kill it - he has chickens, too - but he wanted us to know, just in case.

Homero thanked him for his concern. He's a good neighbor, really, and I guess it just never occurred to him what he might look like coming over the fence with a gun in his hand.