The Boneyard

The girls love the bones I buy at the local grocery store - short pieces with virtually no meat but lots of marrow.

In the past, on a couple of occasions, the girls have gotten into a dispute over a bone. Even when Maia shows no remaining interest in a bone, Meadow will guard it. To avoid any potential problems, between them or with any dog that comes to visit, I take bones away right after they've removed all the marrow. This winter I got in the habit of simply tossing the remains over the fence into the field. The snow would cover them, and in the growing season, the field grass would hide them. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Not quite. It occurred to me that perhaps the reason I was seeing coyotes so close to the yard this winter - and who knows how many other critters I wasn't seeing - was because of the bones. I started tossing them in my garbage.

Now that the snow has melted off the field, the bones I had tossed all winter long are there, easily seen. Our private little boneyard.