Earlier today, Ruth had said she had seen Racoon-Tail (Cooney), the wild neighborhood cat who has adopted us, eating something in the side yard between our house and the next door neighbor's.

"I think Cooney got a rat or something" she said.

Later in the day, I was bringing Kroger back inside after she had been out in the back yard for a while when I noticed Cooney under our van. As I drew closer I saw that he was indeed working on eating something. I figured he'd dragged it under there for shelter and discretion. He was about 3 or 4 feet under it, though, so I just let him be.

This evening we went to the mall to get library books for Isaiah and when we got home, I parked the van far enough beyond where it had been before to clearly see what Cooney had been working on.

"What is it, Roger?"
"Uh... There's not much left..." (it was dark by this time and I was viewing the evidence in the somewhat limited radiance of our front porch light)
"Is it a rat like I thought?"
"No. There's a head, part of a flank, and a tail- a long furry tail. I think it must have been a ferret!"
"A ferret?"
"Yeah, it's definitely a ferret. Who knows where it came from. It was probably somebody's escaped pet. Cooney ate well tonight!"

I scooped it up with a shovel and flung it in the ravine at the bottom of the hill.

Yup, above are the mortal remains...

Click it for a big version