Hear the heelers attacking the door a little after two o'clock. Already at the office door before youngest son can give me his message.

Which is, simply, "Door."

No warning of what I will find at the door, just that there's someone there, and it's for me.

It's the little girl from across the street, with a younger sister or neighbor.

There's a dead prairie dog at the school. The two of them start giving me simultaneous and contradictory directions. But I know this place, of course. With a quick imaginary map on the wall of the house, I figure out the dead rodent is on the north side.

Load the heeler sisters and off we go. With the neighbor girls racing us on their bikes.

It's four and a half blocks. And a tie.

Dead rodent is not a p-dog. A hugely bloated ground squirrel. Like the two that race for cover under the nearby storage shed. A suspicious stone a foot away. I scoop the semi-rank carcass up, thank the girls, and the heelers and I head for the country.

Once on the other side of the tracks, I give the heelers their run and dispose of the rodent football. Noticing a small, round hole in the belly as I do so.

Now, this is essentially just owl food. No significance to its death, nor to the cause (unless we get a bunch showing up, in which case you start worrying about plague or tularemia), but I suspect foul play. But no state laws against shooting ground squirrels. No necropsy necessary to explore what made that hole.

Pass the owls getting back into town, and the police chief is blocking the traffic lane again, visiting with the hotel owner.

Park at the curb (by the owls) to "appraise" him of the suspected rodent murder at the school grounds. Which makes him feel guilty enough to pull over and park as well.

Turns out he caught some kids plinking away with BB-guns and air rifles in town yesterday. And sent them out in the country where they belong. Though he doesn't like the idea of them out there shooting anything.

Mystery solved.

While there, he and I helped the hotel owner pick the best swatch of colour of paint to match the existing outside plaster for his repairs. With owlets glaring down upon us all the while.

Nice to know there will be some repairs, even if it is only paint.