Striped Coat’s foot-prints; front and hind foot.
When finally his new neighbor, the wood pussy, slipped from underneath the brush pile, she was not very happy. Out in the field, however, she could hear the hum of night flying beetles and the chirping of other insects, so in that direction she wandered. Beside clods of earth and under rubbish she poked her nose, cleverly digging out bugs wherever they had hidden themselves and finding, now and then, small grubs and worms of different kinds. No matter how small or how big, if she could get a hold of them that was the end of their happy days of feeding on the Farmer’s crops.
But it was too early in the year for many insects to have collected in a freshly cleared field, so when she had searched most of the ground, the wood pussy’s hunger was nearly as great as ever. There remained indeed the yard around the house and barn, and into this apparently deserted place the little mother’s hunger now led her.
She crept around the dog house and listened for a moment to the farmer’s old black and white hound wheezing in his sleep and grunting every time a flea bit him particularly hard. There were dry bones lying about the entrance but these she was too shy to take.
Next came the barn, a more interesting building, from which issued the strong scent of horses, poultry and the Farmer’s milk goat. The wood pussy examined it very carefully, sniffing through the cracks, straining to reach the open windows and finally getting underneath the floor by way of a loose board at the rear. She saw at once that this was a good hiding place, except for its nearness to things she did not understand and so could not help fearing.
The wood pussy examined it very carefully
But food was the important thing now, so next she crept around the house and hungrily picked up scraps thrown from the kitchen door, potato peelings for the most part, with one foot of a hen and two fish skeletons as tid bits. An old ’possum was there too, munching away in sour silence and cracking bones with his strong jaws.
These two were not, however, long to enjoy their humble meal. Suddenly Possum looked up and shuffled towards the wood. The skunk, knowing he had discovered something wrong, also straightened up. She then saw sneaking around the house the black and white hound who had either smelled or heard the two feasters and was coming around to investigate.
Her short legs would not make much speed, but she did her best to reach the hole under the barn. This however served only to bring on the hound full tilt to head her off. Being a noisy fellow he fairly bellowed with joy when he caught up and had her almost in his jaws.