Footprints in the Snow

 

The weather was much warmer today, but the snow hasn't melted yet.  I went out the backdoor and noticed little bird footprints everywhere.  There were other curious animal tracks.  One looked something like a huge dog footprint with giant claws.  

They looked a lot like this.  The startling thing about them was how large they were.  They were made by a very large animal.  At first I thought they might be made by a mountain lion, but the claws weren't retracted.  This is a photo of a bear print.  But fifteen feet from the house?  Well, I like to feed the birds, and the local cats love to come here and stalk them sometimes.  Rabbits and squirrels sometimes show up too.  My stepbrother was surprised one day when he stopped by that a little bunny hopped right up to him on the front steps.  So if there are various small animals, they could be attracting larger ones I guess.  They sure are elusive though.  

I decided to make a break for it and drive to town.  First I walked around the driveway a little to see if I could make it.  I attempted to leave Friday but couldn't get out of the driveway.  I saw tire tracks that weren't mine.  The weirdest thing was a single set of footprints of someone's shoes or boots walking from the driveway into my yard and down into the woods.  There were no return tracks.  What's going on?  This may happen more often than I'm aware of and I happened to see the evidence this time.  

I did manage to pull out of the driveway after two tries.  It was nice to be out and about after so long.  I went to the Dollar General, mostly for eggs, but also for flavored sparkling water.  The parking lot was icy and I was reluctant to get out of the car and walk on the ice.  A man saw my plight and chivalrously stomped the ice away from next to my door and brought out a cart for me.  The milk of human kindness lives.