Pilot Of Ice Pond
May 2025

Hello Pals!
Spring is finally arriving at the Ice Pond. Flowers are popping up and the grass is turning green. Even the birdies are chirping away in the trees. With spring’s arrival nature’s creatures are waking up.

The black bears have come out of hibernation and one visited our yard! He was very large and hoobro guessed he was about 400 pounds! I think he was more like 800 pounds! Hoomun tried to shoe him away with a very loud boat horn, that I do not like! Onk, onk, the horn screeched, but the bear was not moved. In fact, he decided to sit down and take a rest near our front door! Eventually he strolled down the street methodically knocking over each garbage can, poking for bear goodies and leaving a huge mess for the neighbors to clean up. Luckily, he didn’t bother with our can! After he ate up his trashy snack, he slowly stomped off into the woods. As you might guess, I was stuck in the house until all clear was declared! When I was finally allowed out in the yard, I sniffed up all his weird bear smells! Bears smell interesting for sure.

This spring I have two new labradoodly neighbors next door! They were very excited to meet me and crashed through the fence in their yard to say hi!
Unfortunately, their human didn’t seem to like the hole they made in his fence! Our opportunity to make friends has been temporarily thwarted, but I can tell they are coming up with a new plan to make their way around the fence.
The newest nature visitor to my yard is a barred owl. Although we heard him in the night, this is the first time we saw him. He’s a very big owl and his wings are very wide. Mum is wary that he could swoop down and carry me away! I think this Barred owl lives high above in the tall pine trees. We’ve named him Bartholomew and his hoots sound like eerie music in a haunted movie!

The arrival of squirrels to dig up their remaining hickory nuts and acorns has proven very annoying to mum! Their nutty excavation has made our lawn resemble a minefield, dug up with empty nut shells everywhere. The squirrels also like to bring acorns up on our deck. I think they’re leaving me gifts! I’ve been known to carry acorns around in my mouth and spit them out in various places in the house. Mum was puzzled by how acorns were getting on the sofa until one day she caught me in the act! I was stashing my acorn gifts in the sofa for future reference when mum shrieked “Pilot! What on earth are you doing? Oh no! You’re eating acorns! We will need to get your stomach x-rayed! Your tummy will be sick, your plumbing will be stopped up!” As I spit out my last acorn, I gave her my best reassuring look, “I don’t eat them, I collect them and sniff them when I’m bored!” It didn’t help… Fortunately my hoobro stepped in as mum was inspecting the interior of my mouth with a flash light. Hoobro pointed out that if I had eaten them, I would have evidence in my teeth and I would have acorn breath. Mum hesitantly accepted this logic however she traced my moves in the yard everyday for weeks. She also made Hoobro pick up all of the acorns and hickory nuts. Poor Hubro. Although the acorn caper was silly, we did find out that hickory nut shells are toxic to hounds. They can cause hallucinations and even seizures if eaten, so stay away from those!

I hope you are having spring adventures and when we next connect, it will almost officially be summer!

Have fun and avoid the bears,
your pal,
Pilot