A little more about the little black pigs that were on the loose today. We located their owners who live just up the road from us. After spending most of the morning "on the road," two of the three runaways were captured by our neighbor and her friend, another neighbor who stopped to help. I asked how she finally was able to capture the little beasts when they were so quick and ran so fast. "I caught them by their hind feet," she told me. She said they made quite a racket, squealing loudly, but they were unharmed. The third one escaped by running into the thicket.

Soon after lunch, Ted Chase stopped by our house and said he'd seen a pig down the road from us and wondered if we knew who it belonged to. Of course we did, and we went down to see if we could catch him. A neighbor who was hauling cattle stopped to help and then the mailman came along, but all of us together couldn't get him. He took off down the road and disappeared into the ditch.

Fred and I hung out for a little while after the others had gone, and before long, the little black pig came out of the grass and began trotting down the road again. We followed far behind, hoping to keep him moving towards home where his two siblings and mother pig were; but several cars and loud trucks went by and that spooked him. He ran into the woods and although Fred tried to follow him, he lost him in the underbrush. In the darkness of the woods, a black pig simply doesn't stand out. I waited on the road hoping he'd reappear, but when he didn't, we gave up and left.

We don't know if the little guy is spending the night in the woods or if his owners were somehow able to locate him. I bet he was tired. The three of them had put on some miles traveling back and forth on W. Shore Road this morning, but this last one still seemed to have plenty of energy, but not much sense.

Speaking of not having much sense - on the news tonight there was a short story about a Cabot woman who was "attacked" by a bear on her deck. The story said she'd been warned about feeding the bears, but apparently had ignored the game wardens. She was trying to shoo the bear off the deck and may have gotten between the mother bear and her cubs, and that's definitely not a good idea. She had an injury to her leg, but apparently it wasn't severe.

We've had a bear in our immediate neighborhood and he has been persistent about hanging out. There was a leftover piece of suet in a tree and the bear found it. No harm done, but nobody really wants a bear hanging around, so fire crackers were tossed out, but it took a whole string going off at once to get the bear to leave. They are definitely hungry this time of year and the bear was hoping for another free lunch.

Today I figured up how much rain I've reported this spring. In March I reported 4.80 inches, April 7.08 in., and in May 10.40 in. Average rainfall for March is about 2.5 in., and about the same for April. May's average is about 3.5 in. That's only 8.5 in. for the three months, and this year we got over 22 in. Last year during the same period I recorded 11.30 in. Two years of records doesn't prove a trend, but it supports what we found out from the weather station at Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury (and from some other experts).

Lots of folks around the pond are still trying to find docks and other stuff that floated away - we have new reports either on the blog or on the comments page nearly every day. Some have been reunited with their property - some are still looking. Let us know if you find stray docks, bumpers, or other floatables.