We have a new grandpuppy!! No pictures yet, but they’ll be coming. Our son Brian just adopted a beautiful little black lab. Abby has the most adorable face–and I can’t wait to meet her!

This past weekend I was trying to finish some book revisions. Working hard, chugging Diet Coke, I figured that with a few more hours, I’d have it all done. Then BLAM!!

Instantly, the power went off, and the two surge protectors in my office both started beeping madly. I didn’t need to even look to know what had happened. Again. Yet another squirrel had bit the dust on the power line transformer out in front of our house.

Out here in the country, it doesn’t take much to knock out the power. Suicidal squirrels–which seem to be present in a never ending supply. Windy days. Rain storms or ice storms, of course. The occasional raccoon that scales the fences and investigates one of the power substations. One small animal can sure cause a lot of trouble–though I also feel sorry for the one that bit the dust.

If the power outage is wide-spread enough, it can take a long time to get it back, and then I start to worry about our well. Are the horse water tanks full enough? Will I be able to run water for the barn cats?

The barn animals don’t need an intercom to let me know that the water tank is low, or that they think it’s time to be fed. Even from the house, I can tell. BANG-BANG-BANG is equine Morse Code for a low water tank–one of the horses will stand next to the tank and paw at it, then lift his head and look to see if anyone is coming.

If I’m a little late for morning chores, the horses line up at the gate and whinny if they see any movement up at the house, and the cats let me know, too. They line up in a row on the lawn like miffed sentinels, glare at the house, and then do their best to trip me by winding around my ankles when I do head for the barn. Which is a tad tricky, if I’ve run out there in my nightgown and barn shoes!

Maybe animals don’t have words, but it’s amazing how well they can communicate, and how they really do have more emotions than we give them credit for. I read a study done on pairs of dogs who were given a simple command, then rewarded. All went well–until the researcher started rewarding only ONE of the dogs. The unrewarded dog’s response to the command not only ended very quickly, but the animal refused to even make eye contact with the researcher. Clearly, it was pouting!

How about your pets–are they more animal, or human?!