Sunday, 8:00 A.M.

It is very quiet in this neighborhood on this mild overcast Sunday morning. Not even the usual buzz of traffic from East Main St., a block away.

I step outside to check the temperature, and notice a squirrel perched on a stump in my next-door neighbor's yard. He working on a cluster of pecans, still in their protective green hull.

As I ease closer to watch him, a movement across the street catches my eye. Our tomcat, Vicious (as in Sid), emerges from the beanfield behind the house there. He moves gracefully, then halts at the edge of the street as he spots the squirrel.

The squirrel, who has been warily observing me, spots Vicious at the same time as the cat begins his dash forward. Dropping his pecans, he scrambles toward my back yard and with a single bound, mountd the privacy fence.

Wolfgang, our husky-wolf mix, leaps at the squirrel running nimbly along the fence, to the neighbor's shed, and to a low hanging limb.

It's Sunday morning. God is in His heaven, and my animals are on patrol.