Yes, we do have dormice and their larger 'cousins', moles: several varieties, not many of them encouraged. I have seen a grown German Shepherd's chest torn open by the teeth of a vigilant prairie dog, and watched my backyard become a collection of mounds overnight. Can you imagine the collateral damage a large golden retriever makes in the garden chasing the scent of them from the new mounds every morning? Nothing cute about them, even if they do eat slugs. Neighbors on the alert advised me to use chewing gum, carefully placed in a new hole without human hands touching it. Supposedly the varmints eat but cannot digest it and die. It didn't seem to work, but just as I was at despair, he/she/them moved on to the next victim. Karen (BMcC) >[Do you have any hedgehogs on your property?]
Strangely enough, we *do* have a hedgehog. Or, rather, it was visiting here a day or two ago. He/she was first noticed about six houses away a week or two ago, munching slugs in their garden. Then he/she appeared in the adjoining garden, and then the next . . . He/she is doing a systematic job of pest clearance along here. We're all leaving out saucers of milk by way of reward. For such a roundish, apparently ungainly, creature he/she is surprisingly agile and is obviously climbing the 6-10 ft high stone walls between our properties. Long may his/her genes survive too. Do you have moles in America? -- I don't mean spooks burrowing into your CIA, but those small creatures with beautiful black fur. Keith
