Deja Vu of the Oak Attack

Okay, this bears repeating as Deja vu has hit again. I refer to the attack of the oak tree!

Same scenario… same reaction from my dogs!

They say it’s a bumper year for acorns. I had been hearing this for quite some time, and did not really know exactly what it meant. First, I don’t think of acorns as crops. We don’t eat them, but I guess the deer and squirrel have a very different thought about the acorn crop. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the coming winter or not, but if it does, then we will see a mighty big winter “something”.

When I first started hearing them fall, it sounded like gun shots being fired with an automatic rifle. It scared me, and the dogs, as they pounded my deck and house. Some of the larger ones would hit so hard, I literally jumped at their sound. Try being in bed at night, just dozing off, when you hear an especially large group of acorns being hurled at your deck or house. I sat straight up in bed and my dogs leaped over me to the floor and made a beeline outside, barking as loudly as they possibly could. It took a while for my adrenalin to settle down. The dogs, finding nothing outside, came back in but stood guard in the hallway outside the bedrooms for over an hour producing low grunting growls that would surely scare off any danger known to man.

One of my dogs has started putting his head out of the doggie door, before emerging outside onto the deck. He pushes out the flap and stands for five to seven minutes or longer before he cautiously takes a step out. He reminds me of “Chicken Little” thinking the sky is falling. I sometimes refer to him as my little “Chicken Little”. He has decided it is coming from the sky as he searches the sky for the culprit. When he does go on the lawn, he makes a mad dash for the side of the house that has no stately oaks shaking their arms and dispelling their maddening seed.

My other dog goes out, but gets her feelings hurt and pouts because someone or something is throwing missiles at her. When the trees bombard her with acorns, she freezes in her steps, tucks her tail between her legs and looks around suspiciously. If she spots me, I get an irritated growl as if saying, “Mama, why are you doing this”. She then plays dodge cars running from shelter to shelter to the safe side of the yard. When it first started, she would turn and growl at the other dog, as if he had attacked her. The other one would look at me as if to say, “Mommy, I didn’t do it.” “It was that big mean tree over there, he’s being a bully.”

I have not seen many squirrels, but I am convinced something has happened to our squirrel population in the last few years, as I spot very few. The deer is another story. They brave an encounter with my dogs to indulge in the big crop of acorns. I love the deer, so this is fine with me. As a matter of fact, it is about the only thing I find good about the hearty bumper crop of acorns falling from my trees.

I can only imagine what a nightmare it would be if every acorn that fell became a tree.