Spookersnout Encroachment and Dinner Endangerment

Since I'm a roving reporter, Kindly Couple keep my supper dish outside and filled at all times.  They never know when I'll be dropping by to deliver a story or visit with library colleagues, patrons, and my fans.  It is common knowledge in the neighborhood that this particular dinner dish belongs exclusively to moi, so I didn't see any reason to post signs or security slobberdogs.  Most of my fellow felines and slobberdogs respect this and give my supper dish a wide berth.

You can imagine my horror when Scowl-Face reported to me that, not once but twice during the last 72 hours, he has seen a spookersnout chowing down my dinner!  Can you believe the insolence?  Wild animals think they can go anywhere, eat anything, and just generally do as they please.  Not so, spookersnout.  There are limits, and you're about to learn just what price encroachment upon my personal rights will mean.

I can't imagine it, but, just in case you don't know, here are a couple pictures of spookersnouts.

 Dinner-Thieving, Tree-Climbing Spookersnout

Watch yourself:  Those razor-sharp teeth will slice you up a treat

Scowl-Face mushed the spookersnout away from my supper on both occasions, but it clearly has not gotten the message if it has returned.  Perhaps the presence of three of my slobberdog enforcer pals (yes, I have canine friends, and why not?) will send that spookersnout packing.  I'm perfectly willing to share my din-dins if I am asked politely first.  That's only common courtesy.

Heavy Plastic Outdoor Storage Container

(Referenced Below) 

Now I must digress momentarily to relate another of those Scowl-Face stories that have become part of the neighborhood folklore.  One Fall day a couple of years ago, Scowl-Face was cutting wood for the winter (imagine Monty Python's lumberjack sketch without Michael Palin's physical fitness).  When he (Scowl-Face, not Michael Palin) opened one of those heavy-plastic outdoor storage containers (sort of like the one pictured above), in which he intended to place the freshly-cut kindling, he came nose-to-snout with a ferocious spookersnout.  It may have looked something like this:

Surprised Spookersnouts WILL defend themselves, and who can blame them?

Long-time readers of this blog may recall Scowl-Face's defensive reaction to wild animal encounters.  Well, on this occasion, he did not disappoint.  There was little-girl-like squealing and some pretty amazing reverse motion for such an old guy.  But nobody was injured, thankfully; spookersnout and Scowl-Face fled the scene without incident.  Seeing Scowl-Face up that close would scare any animal, whether it is ferae naturae or ferae domitae (sometimes referred to as ferae domesticae) (click here for online legal definitions; you could also look it up in Black's Law Dictionary, if your library has a copy; ours does.  You could also look up Indiana law on the subject in this book, available at the Indiana State Library and in the Evergreen Indiana catalog.  For a more general legal discussion, try chapter nine (I think) from this book.).

Perhaps a sign might ward off those pesky spookersnouts.  Let's see . . . hmmmmm . . .

Word to the Wise, Spookersnouts--You've Been Warned

Not playing possum here,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Marsupial Mammal News Beat