Fun Animals

Every once in awhile, just because I love animals so much, I just can't resist including a post about all the fun creatures we encounter in our daily lives. Of course we have our outdoor cats that we adore, Googie and Princess; yes, they're still around. We have almost nightly visits from raccoons and daily visits from our cardinal couple, Carl and his wife. Turtles and snakes have been scarce this summer (thank goodness on the snakes) but there have been plenty of frogs and toads around. Savannah is fearless and has no problem catching them. All I can say is Yuck!

Passing the poor little guy around.

Every one had to take a turn holding him.

We haven't seen too many bunnies in our backyard in recent years due to our cats but the rabbits are making a come back this year for two reasons - first, the delicious thick clover and second, they have finally realized our cats are well fed and lazy and have no intention of trying to eat them.

David found this cool leopard slug

and I spotted these beautiful bugs. I'm usually not into insects but there have been so many cool butterflies, dragon flies, ginormous ants, and praying mantises around that I can't resist taking pictures when I come across them.

Our funniest nature encounter came on Father's Day. I was coming down the stairs, ready to head off to church, and I could hear David yelling in the basement, "There's a bird in the house!" When I got to the basement I found David unsuccessfully trying to corral a small bird toward the basement door. We had had a robin's nest in the eaves of our back patio and had been enjoying looking at the baby birds the past few weeks. Apparently the time had come for them to leave the nest and they had made their way to the ground but not much farther. Xander had taken out the trash, leaving the door open, and one of the baby birds had chosen that moment to attempt to fly...right into our basement! I quickly grabbed a towel, cornered the bird, and picked it up. I spent a few minutes with it because, to be honest, how often does one get to hold a robin?