Fritz . . .

Well Fritz has returned to using the shoe at night.  She has about the same hours as I do.  That is she is in her shoe no later than 8:30 to 9:00 PM.  She gets way into the toe of the shoe curls around the so that unless you know she is in there you would not know it at all.  Like I said it is a safe place to spend the night.

I see her head sticking up looking around in the morning.  As always she is very patient.  She does not move her head back and forth. She is very still.  I am sure her eyes are moving around.  She is very attuned to any kind of movement in her hunting.  So I am sure she is looking for predators.  She starts looking around about 6:30 AM and by 7:00 AM she is out and about.  Often see her on the patio carpet, an 8 by 8 rug of sorts.

She spends the day scouring the patio and outer patio that is not a solid white concrete but decorative pebble surfaced more closely matching her coloring.  She scoots back and forth after her prey.  Most of the prey are too small for us to see unless we are up very close.  Of course, she does not tolerate us being up close.  She does allow us to be with say five feet of her. 

I have seen her charge off the patio into the side flower bed after an insect of sorts.  She devours small butterflies and loves crickets.  We rarely see crickets anymore.  And if one of those little butterflys lites within 18 inches of her, they are done for.  She is fast.

So we often sit and watch her.  She scoots this way and then that way.  She rests in the shade under the wood pile or under the furniture.  Every once in a while she goes up in the tree, a Hackberry that shades the Southeast corner of the house.  It is about 7 or 8 feet from the patio and a like distance from the house.  We think it is at once cooler up there and probably more insects to boot.

They are pretty savvy little creatures.  Fritz is fairly tolerant of us but all the others are not.  They run and hide very quickly if we approach.    Hard to sneak up on them.  In Fritz's case we are sure she knows us and thus we have become non-enemies.  There must be five or six of them in the yard.

And so goes life at our feet.