Boise, Idaho

While I’m up in Boise, Rich is still down in Phoenix getting to know the neighbors better.

Our south side neighbors, Mike and Julie,  were away visiting a new grandbaby. Now they are back and have been very helpful.

The RV resort provides trash pickup twice a week which is great, but we don’t have an outside trash can to store the daily bags. So Rich was  tying a large bag up on Homer’s ladder and then putting it out for pickup on the assigned days.

But there were holes chewed into the bags, and we couldn’t figure out what caused them. All dogs are on a leash, and we never saw any cats roaming around.

One night Sophie got me up as she barked at something that was walking around outside. All I could hear was something clipping along the cement. I thought it was an animal’s toenails, but now I know it was hooves.

Rich mentioned to Mike that something tried to get into the garbage.

Mike calmly said, “That would be a javelina.”

I have heard of javelinas, but I had no clue what they looked like or where they lived. Once again, Google to the rescue…

Here are a few javelina characteristics:

• Peppered black, gray and brown hair with a faint white collar around the shoulders
• 40-60 pounds and about 19 inches tall
• Young born year-round, most often from November to March
• Live an average of 7.5 years
• Very poor eyesight, may appear to be charging when actually trying to escape
• Keen sense of smell
• Eat primarily plants, including cacti, succulent plants, bulbs, tubers, beans and seeds; sometimes eat insects, garbage and grubs

Guess I’ll be a bit more careful while walking Sophie around the park at night from now on…

Oh and thankfully Mike has lent us a garbage can for the rest of our stay so the javelinas won’t be feasting on our trash. 🙂