Meet Grassy

Last Spring, as all the snow melted away, we noticed what looked like a road map....lots of winding streets, dug out of several areas of our yard.  This picture will show you what I mean...

 

We learned that the nasty culprit of all this damage to our lawn was a little rodent called a vole. See below.

And as the Spring pressed on, we became very familiar with the look of these little (but adorable!) devils, because our cat Cougar would go hunting at night and leave the deceased prey on the back porch for me to pick up with a shovel and throw in the garbage.

This fall, we took some precautions to try and lessen the chance of our yard being destroyed again. We have been anxiously awaiting the melting of snow to see if it paid off.  The other day, Kendall and Sam happened to spot something running across the still snow covered lawn.  Kendall recognized it as a vole and somehow captured it, put it in an old peanut jar and brought it in the house.  The boys named it.

Meet "Grassy".

Can you see that cute little face peering out of the jar? 

Kendall knew that a vole in our yard in the winter was not a good sign and wanted him gone.  So, after about an hour of the boys staring at him though the glass, he and the boys went off to release Grassy into a big, farming field near (yet far enough away) our house. 

The snow has melted. We have some vole tracks in the front yard. Not nearly as bad as last year, though, and none in the backyard at all.  Cougar has started leaving gifts on the porch and the boys are always happy to tell me that it's not Grassy because we let him go far away so Cougar couldn't get him. 

And I hope that's true. And I'm glad that our backyard didn't get eaten through.