Dog Saves Woman from Rabid Squirrel

Sometime between 5 and 5:30 PM yesterday I heard Carmella barking and clawing at the kitchen window which leads to the back porch. I knew that neighborhood dogs sometimes passed through on either side of my house but this didn't seem like something just passing through, as she continued to bark and claw at the window sill for over 10 minutes, so I came in to see what was out there. I looked out the windows in the back door next to the kitchen and saw a squirrel latched onto the screen on the outside of the wooden framework of the porch. It was making quite a fuss, and strangely did not make a move to run when it saw me just a few feet away. In fact it strained forward on the screen as if to meet the potential threat of a larger predator head-on, riveted to my every move. A former roommate's dogs had torn out the screen from the panel just below but it clung there right where it was, the only thing preventing it from hurling itself in my direction; that it didn't seem to see the open area just beneath. Despite the barrier it just kept making these staccato raspy chirps, the kind squirrels make to other squirrels to challenge another, and staring me down. I have had a problem with squirrels chewing through my fascia boards at the perimeter of my roof overhang for some time now and now hear them gnawing on the wood for hours every day for the past few months, and this must have been one that had been making its home inside my overhang and just popped out one of the holes.

I thought maybe if I got a little closer and scared it off with a stick it would dissapear into the woods, but no such luck. It just seemed more intent on me and Carmella. I let Carmella out to scare it off and rather than going the other way and making its easiest escape up any number of trees it scurried horizontally across the the screen, then turned upside down, head first, and jumped onto the back porch floor and ran straight at me! People think of squirrels as benevolent, innocent, sweet little harmless creatures, but not this one! This monster had come straight from the bowels of hell! It was the stuff that nightmares and horror movies are made of.

I yelled for Carmella to get it and she ran to my side and intercepted it just as it was a few inches from my left foot. That's when I knew for sure it had to be rabid because as she snapped it up it was snarling like an angry cat, as if it really thought it could take Carmella on, unaware of their difference in size. Lucky for Carmella she is up to date on her rabies shot. I wouldn't have been so lucky if I'd been attacked since humans are not vaccinated for rabies. At first snap, Carmella took half its tail clean off and then grabbed hold of the middle of its body. It seemed crazed, almost posessed. Normally Carmella's strong jaws killed  a squirrel in just two bites but this one seemed to keep going and going. If she didn't kill it the backyard wouldn't be a safe place for either of us to walk in. A few more bites from Carmella's powerful jaws while shaking it violently and it finally was dead.

Despite all its carrying on it had not bitten Carmella. Carmella had been quicker, Thank God. There may be more rabid squirrels as the disease can spread from one animal to another and I heard one this morning at 6 AM again chewing on the corner of my house, so today I am going to see if I can find out who to report the animal I saw to. There are children living in the neighborhood, so I don't want any more of these to endanger the people on this street.

Thanks to Carmella, I avoided a trip to the ER and a painful rabies series. She amazes me with her loyalty and protection every day and I consider her a hero. But I think if you were able to ask her she'd tell you that's just what friends/family do. They are there with you when threats cross your path, right in there with you to fight that which could be your undoing in one form or another. If not for her I don't know what I would have done.

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The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Egmont Surprise Notecards (6) - $15.00
Accessible only by boat, Egmont Key Lighthouse sits on Tampa Bay in Florida. Lighthouses are a vanishing breed.
4 1/4" x 5 1/2" on white card stock, blank inside, offered together with white envelopes size A2. There is a white 5/8" border around the image.

Dream on is aptly named, a tropical paradise of rich watercolor paintings with an impressionistic style and a somewhat surrealist twist. My very favorite of these paintings is the one above. It reminds me of when I used to go to Woods Hole Massachusetts during the summer as a child and see the sandy beaches and old fashioned lighthouses, their foghorns sounding in the distance. The pink flower in the foreground is a nice touch, and her use of color and texture is warm and inviting, capturing the essence of the location in a way which makes you feel like you’re there.

The artist, Mary Hamilton, a former business computer programmer and owner of a word processing and resume writing business first painted in oils, but after she tried watercolor, she much preferred it and acrylics and felt it challenged her in a way that oils never did.

Mary’s paintings are filled with images from Florida where she lives most of the year; the remaining months of which she lives in the mountains of Colorado.

I love Snowy Egrets. She captures the grace of these beautifully.

Egret With Attitude Note Cards (6) - $15.00
This particular group of birds lived in the Everglades.
4 1/4" x 5 1/2" on white card stock, blank inside, offered together with white envelopes size A2. There is a white 5/8" border around the image.

This painting below, mostly done in shades of orange and a mossy green has a beautiful glow to it, and the reflection of the sailboat in the water is rendered very well. I also love how she has made the sky transition into the horizon line, making the painting dreamy, yet still believeable. Also, notice the palm tree at the upper left of the sailboat with its leaves backlit by the setting sun!

Florida Visions Note Cards (6) - $15.00
Florida Visions, a set of six different notecards which are reproductions of my original watercolor paintings. There will be one of each card. Offered together in this set are birds, memories from beaches and the Everglades.

Mary’s process is very interesting in that she takes hundreds of photos and then compiles images from several within the same picture, for the fun ones her subject matter comes entirely from her imagination, and in others she uses live scenes to paint from.

She most enjoys painting the ones that come out of her imagination and finds that they paint themselves, but dislikes painting architectural things.“My paintings are not symbolic as a rule” she says, “but I have painted a few which are. I am a Christian, and know that everything I am and everything I do is because the Lord provided it to me and has chosen for it to be.”A few galleries, restaurants, and office buildings display her work, and she also enters art shows. Her most successful venue was a hotel where she had a few paintings. Located by the front door everything sold.

“As I continue to show, the prices tend to go up slowly on the more serious work. Artists struggle to find what is satisfying for them to paint vs. what sells. What sells much of the time, especially locally, is what is a deal for the buyer. Hence: starving artists. I read somewhere that only 10 percent of people buy original art. That's a really small market to split with many, many other competent artists, so my biggest successes would be my most recent sales at annual art shows that have been in existence for years and years, where I show and sell my best pieces.”

Mary’s most expensive piece ever sold was a watercolor, floral painting with deep red, gold and white poppies with deep shadows and lots of contrast.

Speaking about an artist she particularly admires, Mary becomes nostalgic. “I once took a workshop with Bridget Austin (from Wisconsin) who is an absolute master of negative painting (painting technique, not bad painting) that helped me sooooo much. I love her work, and if mine has been influenced by hers, then I'm honored. Negative painting refers to painting around an object instead of painting the object. For example if I were going to paint a tree on white paper, I would paint all around the tree with a light color (green maybe). What would remain would be a white tree. This can be done in multiple layers in a painting. The next layer I would paint around my white tree and a new tree with a darker color (perhaps brown). Then I would have a white tree and a light green tree surrounded by brown. Etc.”

Here her use of light and shadow is wonderful as well as her rendering of the clouds. Clouds are not easy to paint and she has managed to illustrate that type of lighting one finds sometimes at the beach which is somewhat ominous from one direction and at the same time, sun-drenched.

Gulf Shores note cards - $15.00
a reproduction of artists’ original watercolor painting with snow white sand dunes with sea oats gently blowing overlook the Gulf that is that special color. 6 cards on white cardstock and the folded size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" with a 5/8" white border around the image. White envelopes size A2 are provided for each card.

Note: The artist is offering an Etsy special for the holidays. Her greeting card packs will be marked down to $10.00 (from $15.00).


Here Kitty Kitty note cards - $15.00
“There is a shop in Holmes Beach, Florida, next to the Artists Guild Gallery, where there are birds in large cages out on the sidewalk in nice weather. Passersby talk to the birds. One of them says, "Here Kitty, Kitty" and also "Meow."

Mary's long-term goals are to be represented in one of the galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM, and to be featured in Artist's Magazine.

To purchase these wonderful works of art as originals or prints, go to:
http://DreamON.etsy.com
To learn more about the artist, read her blog;
http://DreamsAboutArt.blogspot.com