So my suspicions are true -

 about what was causing those little rooted up areas in our far backyard...

While Craig and I were working on the tomato enclosure Saturday morning our neighbor rushed into our yard to tell use that she'd seen
two baby armadillos playing in her yard that morning --

CONFIRMED.

Did she take photos, well no, she doesn't keep a camera handy...

[since I'm so photo-focused, I guess I assume others are too - lol.] 

Still, I was happy to know my suspicions were correct.

Sunday morning when letting Emma out to 'do her business' 

she started barking way up in the backyard

BINGO

There they were!

 Two little armadillos.

Not scared of ME at all, in fact, one followed me half-way to the house...

And they're FAST [Craig says, 'Obviously not fast enough to get across a road' -lol]

Yes. We know the diseases they carry, and yes, we're keeping Emma away form them when we see them. And, yes - we're looking into what we need to do to get rid of them...

I'll end by saying that 28 years ago when we traveled back and forth [and back & forth] from the Gulf Coast] we never [EVER!] thought that we'd see an armadillo above Birmingham, 

much less 400+ miles north in North Alabama...