Yard Work

A nuisance-- living or dead

We woke up the other day to a rather unpleasant site in our front yard. Some poor unfortunate soul of a squirrel had ended up on our front lawn, bloodied and dead.  He either took a terrible tumble from one of our big oaks or, more likely given the condition of "the body," had been whacked by a car. Either way, he was quite dead and quite gross lying on our lawn, fluffy tail waving in the breeze like the flag of a defeated warrior.

Once we realized what it was, Tam immediately informed me I would be on the mortuary crew: get rid of it. Now, ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem. I'd do what I usually do: call someone. Unfortunately, mid-April in Michigan is not the same as mid-April in Southern California or South Carolina. We won't have enough grass to warrant a yard crew for another month or so. So, I did the next best thing: I suggested we leave it for a day and see if we couldn't recruit a raccoon or something to come haul off the corpse.

Next morning the body was still there. Then this big hungry guy showed up around 9AM and spent the better part of an hour and a half dismantling the poor bastard. Yummy! Who wants pancakes!! You didn't have to watch him (her) work for long before you knew for certain this bird is descended from the dinosaurs. I'm thinking T-Rex.

Note the dusting of snow on April 20th. Still, it's picnic weather for some!

Unfortunately, like a lot of people, vultures do not pick up after themselves when they're done eating. I still had to dig a hole and bury the bones, fur, and that floppy tail. It was gross but all I could think of was this: Thank God I'll never have to smell a vulture's breath! I hope.