Cold out there this morning. The tracks showed up nice and clear in the thin crust of dry snow, three claws forward and one back. It was hard to tell how many of them there might have been, as they travel in a narrow line.

She still hadn't caught sight of them, just the damage they left behind; claw marks 7 feet up the siding, a mutilated chicken, an overturned tractor. They seemed to be growing bolder as they found new things to eat, she wasn't sure how long the lock on the barn would hold.