Friday White Stuff

All year I've heard from friends we're due for a warm winter but the critters have been telling me the opposite. There are more deer lower than I've ever seen. The rock squirrels have always filled their cheeks with food and taken it back to the hole but this year the white-tailed antelope squirrels and the Colorado chipmunks have been doing the same and in addition to seeing their cheeks bloated it's further verified by filling up the water bowel each day and finding sunflower seeds in it. Three nights in a row the cat foot bowl that I fill to the brim each night has been completely eaten, refilled, and again empty in the morning. While all the weather forecast for this week have said the cold weather was going to miss us, the critters knew better. For the first time that I remember in the eight years I've been here I've never woken to snow before Thanksgiving weekend. Not a lot yet, but snow. Even the China Man on Hurrah took a dusting.