Nature Red in Tooth and Claw Lives in my Backyard

I know my dog's barks now.  I know when Nala is barking at passers-by, for no particular reason. I know when Butter has found an animal that does not run away. He doesn't stop and it's different from his bark at strangers.

Sometimes he has barked like that at a dead rat or bird. He also does it at lizards or large bugs and when a turtle gets in the yard, and he tries to eat the turtle, who fortunately can protect itself. 

Such happened today, and I rescued it with my handy-dandy shovel (I'm not touching it!) and placed it outside the fence, hoping it would come out and find a safer home. I checked back later, and it had, so apparently no real damage was done by my dog, although it looked like he'd chewed a bit of the shell. It was a different turtle from the last time he pulled that stunt. 

I heard him at it again, and this time it was a snake. They were having a stand-off, and the snake, which I think is a garter snake but I'm not getting close enough to do any real categorization, was flicking his tongue at Butter. (It had a yellowish pattern)  I got Butter in the house and grabbed that handy shovel, but I think the snake went back to its hiding place under the shed. Butter has been digging around there for a while. That's a good thing because I really don't know if I could cut it in half with the shovel because that would mean getting right on top of it. 

I hate snakes. You have no idea how much. Now that I looked at images on the Internet and had one in the backyard, I'm going to have a bad dream about them.

This is not to mention that the other night something was in my attic and I will be paying a large amount to have it completely cleaned out and sealed. Actually, something is in my attic quite frequently--I got a cat out in December after the several days of 8 degrees. But a few nights ago it sounded like something trying to get in through the trap door and I slept in the family room. 

Finally, my neighbors had something large in their trees that was shaking nuts out of it and broke a branch in the effort. My thought is a bear; they are not unheard of in Northwest Georgia. 

God's creatures have been displaced, and we, like colonial settlers, act like we should banish and destroy them.