I, Duncan ("Honest Scrap" award)

Christine over at Idora Design has tagged our blog with the Honest Scrap award. Nobody who has this award knows why it's called the "honest scrap" but anyway, here's the idea: it's a “Tag – you’re IT” type of post where I tell anyone who’s interested 10 things about me that they normally wouldn’t get from reading my blog. In turn, I ‘tag’ 7 more lucky recipients with this award, and so on, and so on (kinda like chain mail). Town Mouse did the last one of these fun little game things, so I'm going to do this one. I'm just mulling over what to reveal about my long and colorful past - What? - Duncan is here. What do you want? Stop poking me with your wet nose Duncan... Oh, I didn't know you could type...

Hello. Hello. You want to play with me. Here, let me
swipe
your
legs with this great soggy knotted rope end.

Good isn’t it? Isn’t it? See when I
shake
my
head
it thwacks about just like a dead rat. Great isn’t it!
Oh. OK. OK. 10 things about me that you wouldn’t know from reading this blog. You probably don’t know millions of things about me so this should be easy.

1. I Rule

Within my extensive domain, as defined by my perimeter of power, I have my own house and my own human, taking care of me. Or he may be a large dog of an unusual sort. I haven’t quite decided. Everything inside the beeping boundary is mine. Outside of that I have visiting rights but only when the leash is on. Otherwise Ouch. I also have a gardener called Country Mouse and a handyman called Dusky Footed Wood Rat.

2. I eat gophers

(Image from Rich Ditch's Photography Blog)

I’m not telling how many but, the gardener hasn’t had so much trouble lately, and she thanks me for it. So then why does she take my gophers away from me? It’s not like she wants them. She just tosses them over the beeping boundary. Of my extensive domain.

3. I love to go out in the car


When I get into a car, I just can’t restrain my excitement because after a while in a car you get out andWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeee it’s either the beach or the vet or a woodland trail. Or sometimes it’s the dog park. And Yooooooowl it’s going to be so much fun but we aren’t there yet AAAaaaoouwwwlllll! But I haven’t been out in a car for a long time now.

4. I once saved the gardener from a mountain lion

(image from a Santa Cruz News article, Jan 4, 2010, close to home!)
Santa Cruz mountain lion study video (interesting!)

And she’ll never know it. She was quietly eliminating a certain kind of plant from the hillside, when I saw them 15 feet below her, through a screen of scraggly Toyon bushes. I told the mother lion right then in no uncertain terms that she would have me to contend with if she even thought about snacking on the gardener! I repeated this statement several times, very emphatically. Finally the lion shrugged her shoulders. Sighed. Turned her head and called to her son, "Let's go. Slim pickins here anyhoo.” I heard it clear as a bell. “anyhoo” – Can you imagine, lions talking that way? I barked them all the way off the property just to make my point. Ha! I Duncan, saved the gardener! I righteously pranced up and down the path, glaring after them. “Duncan, will ye fer goodness sake Be! Quiet!” The gardener yelled. My tail went right down and I stopped prancing all together. But not for long. I had a few more prances in me on that occasion. Well, it could have happened.

5. My ears are so big...

That sometimes when I run, I do actually fly. And then -- I can hear the fairies.


6. Juicy rabbits hop all around this place

Every day, morning and evening. And I can’t catch not even one. They just hop across the beeping boundary. So I don’t care so much about them any more. Or the birds or the squirrels or the quail. It seems kind of pointless. I think I am becoming middle aged.

7. I am not the only literary Rat Terrier...

Of my early life in Connecticut I have but little memory. My mother, I am sure, did the best she could. Blind I was and deaf – deficient too, even in my ability to detect strong scent. My brothers and sisters were likewise half-baked, yet while we squirmed against each other for what I imagined to be the admirable purposes of mutual warmth and protection, they, older and larger and emboldened by these advantages, were none too kind, given freely to shoving and pushing in their efforts to provide themselves nourishment without concern for my well-being. For all their help I might have starved.

I, Duncan, a standard sized rat terrier of good repute, am not the only rat terrier who has taken up the pen. In I Spot, a miniature rat terrier, tells his own life’s story, as well as that of the humans around him. As a rat terrier myself, I can vouch for its authenticity. And it has some very funny bits.

8. I don’t like water


I’m a terr-ier. As in terra-firma. The gardener persuades me to take a bath now and again and I go along with it for the toweling after. And once a year she makes me swim a circle in the pool and get out at the steps. Does she think I would forget a thing like that? The gardener likes water when it’s warm. It hasn’t been warm enough for a couple of years now. Not very often anyway. She feels guilty about maintaining this chemical pool and not even using the water.

I do like to play tugowar with people in the water though.

9. I don't like being run over by silent cars


Country Mouse went away for many days, to greet a grandchild into the world, and when Rat met her back at the airport, he hugged her and welcomed her, and then mentioned that he had run me over as he was leaving for the airport, but it wasn’t too bad. They have one of those silent cars and he didn’t see me sleeping in the driveway as he backed out of the garage.
It could have been worse, no bones broken, but it took many months for my skin to grow over. I have a cool scar now on my left shoulder.

10. I am a master fence walker

I'm a pretty agile fellow all around, and always happy to play. Wanna play now? How about now? ... Now?

OK thanks, Duncan, you saved me a lot of work for sure! Funny you couldn't find a picture of yourself actually in the water...

So now I'm going to tag seven people.... Hm.... OK here are some of our faithful commenters and fascinating blog writers. I know there are more but I'm not going to go do a fandango over picking folks so don't read much into my choices. I like all these blogs, and others -- even if I don't visit y'all that often - I'd love to have more time for browsing the great info and general garden entertainment y'all put out:

Lost in the landscape

Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise

DryStoneGarden

Wild Surburbia

Montana Wildlife Gardener - wonderful greenhouse!

Secrets of a Seed Scatterer - Another wonderful greenhouse!

Garden Faerie's Musings

I hope you take up the challenge to step out of the furrow for a post!