Notes from the Hollow

Some horrible news from Mary Pat Boian today. As I may have mentioned in Notes from the Hollow before, Mary Pat adopted a small smart dog with distinctive looks and named him Max after Max McCaver, a main character in my novel (Murder in the Ozarks.) The horrible news part is that Max died last Saturday. He yelped and fell dead while going down the porch steps while in guardian mode, protecting Mary Pat from a strange dog. Sad news.

Last week before the snow and ice fell, I visited the Carnegie Library in town (I recommend it highly) and was returning home via Hillside, made the sharp corner onto Main Street at the Depot (stopping at the stop sign first) and headed south towards Magnetic Road. I came to a complete stop because of the coyote standing in the street. It was good sized and very healthy looking, with a definite reddish-sheen to its thick coat. Many of the coyotes I see are skinny and scraggly looking, but this one was obviously well fed.

He/she trotted out of the road and stopped to watch me. I stayed stopped to watch the coyote. We watched each other awhile and then he loped off to hide under a little bluff.

The coyote's large size and reddish coat made me think of Red Wolves, of course. But I won't get into that at the moment...

Today I was reminded by a good friend that I've not updated the Notes from the Hollow for awhile. No reason that I've slacked off, just don't seem to get around to it. I still have ideas every 2 or 3 days. I need to get back into it - there has been a lot going on around here.

There may not be any photographs for a few days. I'm having trouble with the rechargeable batteries to my camera. I don't know if the problem is the batteries or the charger.