Round Pegs in Square Holes

Last year, when Farmer Rick was digging the trench for the sewer line reroute, Cody our backyard dog discovered an armadillo using it as a highway late one night. Awakened by constant barking--which could only mean "critter!"--we put the dog in the shed and let the 'dillo escape.

However, the poor creature was so rattled it dove into the fence, wedging its round body firmly into the square wire hole. At first we tried to pull him out, but the anatomy of his bands made that against the grain, so to speak. This left us with the choice of either cutting our fence, or pushing two thirds of a very round rear through. We chose the latter, and discovered--with much grunting on all accounts--that you can put a round peg in a square hole.

That 'dillo ran at the speed of light once he popped through. Seems like we scraped off a few scales in the process. We see him around almost every day, and have named him Patches, for obvious reasons.

This morning, Patches was in the front yard when I went to let the chickens out, so I grabbed my camera and got really close. For those of you that don't know, armadillos are relatively deaf and blind. They use their sense of smell and feel for vibrations. If you move slowly and are down wind of them you can pretty much get right next to them. In this case I was laying in the grass about three feet away.