Now that winter is long gone, a pleasant memory of it remains, if we bother to think about it at all. What returns my memory to winter is seeing a tiny chipmunk somehow finding the remainder of seeds and nuts that we had put out throughout the winter months for the local wildlife, still available for his delectation.

During that time when birds and small furry animals came to feed on what my husband kept replenished daily was either one or two bunnies, who knows how many in fact, but they would come around. We'd first noticed their presence when we became aware of rabbit pellets littering the snow around the backyard fence, and then noticed that the rabbits had been nibbling on the bark of the burning bush planted there. So we cut down some of the branches and left them littering the snow to make them more accessible to the rabbits.

Now, in the summertime backyard, we occasionally see tiny bunnies hopping about in the underbrush of the shrubs thickly packed toward the fence-end of the backyard. The raccoons that occasionally visited the porch where the seeds and nuts were displayed still come around on their nightly visits to our two compost bins. They are always respectful about it, never leaving a mess for us to clean up afterward; they simply move aside the lid and take their pick of whatever appeals to them.

As to the condition of our own domestic little bit of wildlife, Riley has been looking fairly disreputable and unkempt of late. Part of it is that at age 14 he has lost his puppy appearance and has become a stolid elderly dog whose hair no longer grows as plentifully and curly as it once did, in this way resembling my husband.

Time for some close attention to his toilette. It's slightly hotter today than yesterday's 30 degrees, and again we have full sun. But there's a canopy over the deck and a slight breeze, so Riley and I sat out on a lounge on the deck and for the first time in memory he lent himself comfortably to my task of trimming his hair. Usually he shudders and shivers in apprehension, and is visibly upset at the process; not this time.

And then, it was time for a bath. Another ritual that he fears and detests; he hates the water enveloping him, while Button used to revel in it. But bath him we did, and it was about time, since he hadn't been bathed in months. We thought it would be good for his skin, at the very least, and cool him off at the same time. Using an oatmeal and aloe puppy shampoo we set to, and this time he made it quite obvious that he was -- enjoying himself.

Life continues to be full of little surprises.