Snufflin’

The armadillos had drifted into the yard that night.

Jimmy Bob snuffled up another mound of dirt. “Nothin’ here. Dang nab it.”

Joey Bob wandered up. “Course not. You’re diggin’ in a dry spot.” He sauntered over to where Johnny Bob was rooting around at the base of a pine. “Got a scent?”

Johnny Bob did not particularly want to share. “Nope.”

Joey Bob understood Johnny Bob quite well, and knew that meant he had found something. He settled in to dig a hole nearby, to Johnny Bob’s irritation.

“Seen the folks that live here?”

“Sure ‘nuff.” Johnny Bob kept digging, and Joey Bob thought he heard some munching sounds as well.

“Matter fact, one of ‘em petted me today.”

“What??”

“Yeah, the tall cowpoke, he wandered out, kinda snuck up on me like, and ‘fore I got my bearings, he reached out and patted my head.”

Joey Bob was amazed. “You know them folks use firearms, right? And that Gardener lady, her pa used to get after our kinfolk with a shotgun.”

Johhny Bob did not know that. He paused, to give that some thought.

Jerry Bob spoke up from digging around a live oak. “Yup. Better watch out. Several of the menfolk here, they’re serious about such things. Wouldn’t mind an excuse to flip the safety and have at it.”

All this was interfering with Johnny Bob’s appetite, and he said so. Which just inflamed the discussion, because everyone else could see Johnny Bob had found some good digging, and would just as soon he abandon it so they could see what was left.

About then Tall Person, the one who had petted Johnny Bob, eased back into their vicinity. This time, they decided not to chance it, and they laid tracks for the high country.