Fastest Armadillo in the South...

at least he was at my house when I tried to get a photo of him.  Instead of grumbling about another Armadillo digging in my garden looking for grubs or digging deep holes to tunnel under my house, I was actually grateful to see this prehistoric mammal this morning.  
After our morning thunderstorm moved on, Moira and I took the dogs out for a walk and we spotted this little Armadillo in my flower garden.  We quickly put the dogs in the house and I grabbed my camera.  Since they are nearly deaf and blind, he must have smelled us coming.  Their main defense is to run and they are very fast.  I only got this one photo and another blurry one of him racing to our back hedge. Moira was beyond thrilled to see a Armadillo alive and well in our yard.  Last week we discovered a very dead Armadillo under our backyard fence.  Actually our sense of smell lead us to him.  Moira was quite shocked and upset all week long about this dead Armadillo.  She had nightmares about him and asked a million questions about why he was dead.  I was very tired of all the Armadillo talk!  She thought this was amazing that we saw one today.  After our Armadillo experience, I printed out a dozen different coloring pages of various Armadillos for her to color.  She couldn't wait for her Pop to come home and tell him all about her experience and give him one of her pieces of Armadillo Art.  I was grateful that our second Armadillos experience was a positive one!  Moira thinks that I like Armadillos…..please keep that a secret!