Slip-Sliding Away?

Riddle: Every year, sometimes during winter and sometimes in the springtime, an elderly woman takes 12 pieces of food, each in its own separate colorful container, and strategically places them outside in her front and back yards. The woman then challenges select relatives to go retrieve the 12 pieces of food for her, so she can put them back into her refrigerator to be eaten later. When these select relatives ask her how the 12 pieces of food ended up outside in her yards, the elderly woman totally denies having put them there. Instead, ----- she blames an animal for the entire affair! Is this woman slip-sliding away mentally, or is there some method to her madness ----- and what animal does she blame?