Barn Quilt

 

Wind was howling past the house during the night.  It would come in waves of keening to dead silence.  Around four a.m. both the dog and I woke up to the sound of a crash.  I didn't worry too much.  I had 'winterized' everything outside months ago.  Still, I walked around the outside of the house before the morning constitutional.  The only thing amiss was the carcass of a star-nosed mole - all four tiny pink feet pointed to the sky - laying between the front door and garage.  I know they live in the lawn because of their mounds.  I don't put out poison.  I step down each mound and eventually they move their tunneling further out into the tall grass until the next autumn.   As far as I know they only come above ground to look around for a mate (mid-March at the earliest) or if their tunnel becomes filled w/ water.  It was above freezing the day before and some of the snow melted.  That's relatively warm for this time of year - maybe the little guy thought it was time to make whoopie.  No marks on the body.  Laying supine like that I'm guessing the carcass was deposited here rather than he died in that position.   Lots of creatures will kill moles if they come across them but few will eat them because of their musty bitter taste.  (I read that.  Haven't tried one myself.)   Only tracks in the snow around the carcass were a rabbit's and Whip's.  Most likely scenario is the mole got caught above ground, was killed or died of hypothermia, Whip found the carcass. and brought it home to show me.  An alternative scenario is the wind sucked the creature out of his burrow, flinging it through the air until it smashed into the side of my house, causing the demise of the creature from internal injuries, and that was the crash the dog and I heard in the night.  I like all of the loose ends of a story to get tied up.