This morning we got up at an ungodly early hour to deliver to a couple
Costco stores. Once we finished we got assigned a load that picked up in
Aurora, CO and delivers in Salt Lake City - on Monday. We picked up the
new load, went to the truck stop in Aurora for fuel, and since it was a
nice day and we had time I parked, went in and took a shower, and then
Harri and I took a nice, long nap. When we woek up it was getting close
to sunset, so ran in and bought us a roast beef sandwich to share. By
the time I got back to the truck the sun was down, so we left for a
kitten walk.

Let me describe the setting for you. We're in a very pretty suburb of
Denver, just about 1/4 mile off the interstate. This is a large truck
stop, and we're in the far southwest corner. Looking out the windshield
we see a quiet little street. Across the street and to the west are
warehouses. Across the street and to the east is a truck dealership.
Directly across the street is a big empty field. This field has about a
10 foot high and 20 foot wide mound of dirt running the entire length,
perpendicular to the street. The entire field is covered with clumps of
grass.

When we took our kitten walk Harri of course wanted to explore the
field. We walked all through the field, and Harri got the Hunty Zoomies.
With a brisk breeze blowing in our faces, Harri would crouch down beside
a clump of grass with her tail twitching madly. She would then make a
mad dash for another clump of grass 4 or 5 feet away. She would keep up
these mad dashes, occasionally making a huge pounce on invisible prey.
It was fascinating to watch!

After we had been walking for close to an hour, her Hunty Zoomies
changed. She crouched down beside a clump of grass, but stayed there.
The ears swiveled forward, and the tail twitches stilled. She stayed in
this pose of intense concentration for 3 or 4 minutes, then pounced on a
small hole on the other side of the grass clump. She then started making
mini-pounces on something that squeaked! Harri had actually flushed a
mouse! The mouse would dash to a clump of grass and hide under it, and
Harri would pounce and try to get it. The mouse would then dash to
another grass clump. After two or three dashes, the mouse turned around
and streaked into another mouse hole and got away.

Harri of course wouldn't give up. For the next 45 minutes we weren't
able to move more than 10 feet away from the mouse holes. She was an
absolute frenzy of pounces on mouse holes, sticking her arm down mouse
holes all the way to her shoulder, and sitting and watching. Finally
after 45 minutes she got bored and we finished off our walk. But before
we left the mouse hole area she looked at me and gave me the happiest
look - I swear she was saying "thanks for the excellent mouse hunt!".

When we got back to the truck she esplained to me that she was looking
forward to her roast beef dinner and didn't want to spoil her appetite
by eating the mouse, so she decided to let it go. I praised her wisdom
in that choice :) Since she was able to get her paws on the mouse, I
told her we'll credit it as a kill. I need to find a mouse-shaped decal
to stick on the door of the truck now :)

Now it looks like we're actually going to be here until morning. There
was quite a stiff breeze while we were walking, and my experience says
tha tstiff breezes in Denver means nasty winds in Wyoming. A quick
search of the net shows intense high winds across I-80. Since our load
weighs only 2000 pounds (possibly the lightest load I've ever carried),
we would not do well in high winds. So we're going to wait here till
morning then roll. I expect that means we'll have to do an early morning
Mouse Hill kitten walk, too!