Saturday morning, around 6:00 a.m., I was startled from a sound sleep by the insistent barking of our dogs. Knowing from past experience that this was the sound of their “something’s intruding into our territory” bark, I begrudgingly sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. An occasional snake or opossum are the normal culprits, but on this day when I arrived on the scene, I was surprised to find an armadillo digging a burrow under an insulated bag that had been left on the other side of our chain-link fence. Neither the presence of the dogs nor myself seemed to deter it in the least. It stubbornly dug away, occasionally popping its head up to confirm that we were still there.

Eventually, the dogs sullenly resigned themselves to its presence and stood silent watch.

After about an hour I took the dogs inside, and within a short time, the armadillo stopped digging and ambled away.

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”  ~Epictetus