If you know me very well I really enjoy and appreciate a nice lawn. I had a lawn service come out to see if they could do anything with my existing weeds/lawn that the builder planted when the house was built. The guy told me that there was no grass and I probably needed to start over. So a little over a month ago I put sod down in my yard. I took a couple of days off of work and laid 14 pallets of sod. It was hard work but I really enjoyed it. I spent a lot of time rolling it out to make it flat and took extra care to water it. About a week later I walked outside one morning to look at my grass and found that a small area had been torn up. We live in the woods so I thought that there must be a deer or something that came to eat some of my new sod but had accidently pulled some of it up while getting a bite to eat. I carefully fixed the few pieces of sod, but I wondered what kind of animal was trying to eat my grass? I talked it over with a few of my buddies at work and they informed me that it was probably an Armadillo. Last summer I had a run in with an Armadillo so I knew that one lived near by.
Ok…I’ll start with the story from last summer. I had just bought Britney our Boston Terrier Jack for her birthday. So he was just a little puppy. One night I took him out to go potty (with out a leash) and while he was doing his thing I noticed an armadillo crawling out of the pipe that goes under our driveway (I had never seen a live armadillo before, just dead ones on the side of the road). I quickly thought that I need to pick up the dog before he chases after it. As soon as I bent down do grab the dog he took off after the armadillo before I could get him. I took off after him! Now I envisioned the armadillo seeing the dog and running across the street into the woods with the dog chasing it and me chasing the dog. I was wearing shorts and flip flops so that would not have been ideal. Well, as soon as Jack got close to the armadillo the armadillo ran at Jack. Now Jack is pretty quick and just ran away thinking that he had a new play buddy. As soon as Jack ran away that left me running in flip flops down a little hill on wet grass right at an armadillo that had just charged my dog. I quickly tried to change directions but slipped on the grass down to one knee with the armadillo quickly closing in on me. Right when it got to my foot I was surprised to see the armadillo jump about three feet straight up into the air! I quickly got up and chased Jack into the house. I went in the house laughing hysterically and told Britney what had happened.
So now I’ll continue with the current armadillo situation. From that first morning on I woke up every morning to find that my yard would be torn up worse than the previous night. It got pretty bad. I was determined to get rid of the armadillo. I started by chasing it out of my yard a couple nights by yelling at it. That didn’t work, it still came back. So then I thought that I would kill it with a rake. So one night I woke up about 3a.m. and saw the motion light click on, it wasn’t windy so I knew the armadillo was out there. I put some clothes on and grabbed the rake from the garage. I quietly snuck up on the armadillo but it sensed me coming when I was about 30 yards away and it ran into the woods. I chased after it with my rake about 100 yards into the woods and realized I didn’t have a chance that little sucker is fast! A couple of nights later I was taking Jack to the bathroom in the back yard before we went to bed and I saw the armadillo in the front yard. I quickly ran in the house and grabbed the rake. I decided I would be extra careful to sneak up on it. I researched armadillos and found out they are almost blind but they can hear and smell pretty good. So if I was very quiet I thought I could get close enough to get it. I was about 20 yards away and it took off running through the front yard and across the street! I followed after it! For some reason it stopped for a second and took off again but it gave me enough time to get to it right before it went into the woods. I lunged forward with everything I had (definitely some built up anger and frustration) and slammed the rake into the back of the armadillo! (A few notes, I was in flip flops again, on a gravel road, and had just thrown my weight forward while sprinting after the stupid armadillo.) As soon as the rake stuck in the armadillos back it ran to the side, twisting my upper body to the right and caused me to loose my footing and fell flat on my back! The rake was still stuck in its back and it was pulling my arm left and right trying to get free while dragging my knuckles on the gravel road! It got free and ran off! I thought to myself “YES I got it! It is going to go and die in the woods!” I went inside and went to bed very satisfied! For my defense I present exhibit A. It is the rake that I stuck in the armadillos back. You can see the blood on the rake and a testament to how strong these little critters are, it bent the rake!
To my dismay I woke up the next morning and found my yard in shambles! I think the armadillo took out its anger on my yard for me sticking a rake in its back! I told my co-workers about my dilemma and they offered to let me borrow a trap. I researched on the internet and it said they are very hard to trap because you can’t bait them very easy. I thought I would try it anyway. I set the trap that night; baiting it with some banana (They have a strong sense of smell!). I woke up the next morning, my yard was trashed again, the banana was gone and the trap was still set! I tried again the next night, put some more banana in it and made it a little harder to get the banana out. I stayed up late and checked on the trap every so often. About midnight I looked outside and saw something by the trap. I got kind of excited thinking this is it; I have you now stupid armadillo! I then noticed that the armadillo had a long tail and white strips on it. It wasn’t an armadillo it was a raccoon. So the next morning the yard was a mess the banana was gone and the trap was still set. Nothing was working! Throughout this ordeal all of my co-workers and friends kept telling me that I just needed to get a gun and shoot it. I don’t own a gun but I had several offers to borrow one. I finally gave in and borrowed a gun. About two weeks ago I borrowed a 20 gage shotgun from a buddy. I was taking Jack to the bathroom that night and saw the armadillo. I ran inside, turned out all the lights, loaded the gun and went outside. The armadillo was sitting on the edge of the little hill in front of our house. I aimed and shot! The shot knocked the armadillo off of his feet and it tumbled down the hill! To my surprise the stupid thing ran into the woods (I am assuming it died that night). It was perfect! I didn’t even have to clean up a bloody armadillo from my yard. There was no way that that thing could have survived that shot I was too close and I nailed it! I was a happy man!
One of the interesting facts that I read about armadillos it that they are very territorial and that more often than not when you kill one, another will come and take over the territory. It wasn’t more than a week later that I saw that my yard was getting little armadillo holes poked in it again! This time it wasn’t near as destructive but there was still an armadillo and I have seen the destruction that they cause! It was going to die! Life was kind of busy and I wasn’t able to get my buddies gun for a few days, and then I had to go out of town for a few days. So I didn’t get to say up at night and hunt the new armadillo. I got home last Friday to find my yard torn up again. I stayed up late Friday but didn’t see anything. So I tried again Saturday night before I went to bed, still nothing. I woke up from a dead sleep on Saturday night and had a feeling there must be an armadillo out there. I peaked out the window and saw it! So I loaded the gun and tried to quietly open the front door. It must have heard the beep that the door makes from the alarm system because it ran away right when I came outside. I heard it running through the leaves in the woods and it sounded like it was getting closer so I waited. Sure enough it came out of the woods onto the road just down from my house. So I tip toed down the drive way and got as close as I could with out making any noise. I was about 15 yards away and I had a shot so I took it! I blasted the sucker! It flipped over on its back and its legs were moving around. I thought I need to kill it before it runs away. I still had my rake sitting by the front door so I ran and grabbed the rake. I wacked the armadillo so hard with the rake that it broke and the armadillo immediately stopped moving.
Mission accomplished! So on Sunday night I was taking Jack to the bathroom again and I heard something making some noise in the woods by where my dead armadillo was, I thought it was some other kind of animal sniffing around or maybe eating the dead armadillo so I decided to wait a minute and see what it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was another armadillo! I took the dog inside and got the gun! By the time I got back outside the armadillo was in my yard and was walking up toward me. I aimed and fired! I nailed it! It jumped and ran off into the woods; I could tell pretty quickly that it wasn’t running very well so ran inside to get another shell. When I came back out it was laying on the ground dying not much more than 10ft from the one I had shot the night before!
So far I have killed 3 armadillos and hopefully I don’t have any more! But if they come I will be ready for them! I am now an expert armadillo hunter!
Baylee is watching booey (woody) before church in her princess chair. I brought the camera out and she gave me the cutest smile. After I took the pictures she wanted to look at them. She is learning so much. She talks so much. We love her to death. I didn't know you could love someone that much. We are so excited to have another girl. I went to the doctor today and I am 2 cm. now. That is good for me. Still no contractions though. We were at the doctors today for 2 hours. He had to deliver someone's baby and just never caught up. I was uncomfortable sitting on the chair for so long. Thank goodness for my last appointment. 
