I'm so soft...

...when it comes to animals. Ugh. I can't even watch the dodo stories anymore! I know they always have a happy ending but the pain to get there is just too much for me. 

We, my fella and I, have become bird lovers! I don't even know how many different kinds of birds we get at our feeders. A couple dozen for sure. (side note; Blue Jays are actually brown! We perceive then as blue because of a phenomenon called light scattering) But, I don't love it when the raccoons invade the feeders at night! And I don't love it when the squirrels climb in there either! Sometimes though, I'll let them. Especially if a particular squirrel just keeps coming back after I've scared it off 3 or 4 times! Then I feel like, oh, it must be really hungry! See? I'm soft. It gets worse! 

About a month ago, I was looking out the front window and I saw this little pitiful squirrel. I have one little feeder in the front yard and it was looking for anything yummy that the birds have thrown out. It had really been beat up! Half her tail is gone and her little right foot is all mangled up! She was limping and just kept laying around in the yard. I felt so bad for her. So I left her a little pile of sunflower seeds and peanuts. She likes the sunflower seeds the best 😊😊 Well, it's been a month now and she's still around! Not limping so much, but probably struggling. So we leave her little piles of sunflower seeds every time we notice her out there. I know, I know. It's nature and I shouldn't make her dependant on us for food. I don't care. She's just not going to last that long so what the hell. I'm gonna feed her!

See her little toe, just hanging there? Ouch! She can't use that foot much but she can walk on it now. It's been long enough now that when we see her and take some seeds out, she doesn't run away anymore. Now she waits to see what we're going to do. 

Rodents and other small mammals *REVISED 3/27

We don't live in the country. We don't live in an urban area either. I guess that makes us suburban?

Anyway, there is a lot of wildlife around us. Most of it is totally ok with me. Well, I don't appreciate the racoons eating all the bird food and/or pooping on the roof of the house, but other than that, I don't mind too much. 

Last Fall though, some small critter has taken up the interior of our living room wall, as its home. It drives my fella crazy! He can hear it, scurrying around in there. It's become our mission to seek out and destroy the culprit! Mwahahahahaha

First, we plugged up all the obvious holes we could find outside.

Then we set out mouse traps. After a week, we didn't catch a single thing.

Then we drilled small holes in the wall and squirted cayenne pepper in the walls. That worked for a second.

Then we started looking for poison. You would be so surprised to find that that's not a very likable way to get rid of an animal. So we opted for the humane way - trap it in a cage and release it back into the wild, far away from US.

Monday night he put the cage up in the attic. Tuesday morning he found a mouse in there! 

(3/22) Tuesday night he put it back in the attic. Wednesday morning, another mouse. 

*(3/23) Wednesday night he put it back in the attic. Thursday morning he found a mouse in it! 

*(3/24) Thursday night he put it back in the attic. Friday morning he found a mouse in it!

*(3/25) Friday night, back in the attic. Saturday morning he found a ground squirrel in it.

*(3/26) Saturday night he put in back in the attic. Sunday morning her found a mouse in it.

Honestly, I thought that it was probably going to be a chipmunk up there. Nope. I bet there are A LOT of mice up there! Shoot. I hope we can catch them all. I'm super happy though that they haven't found a way into the house. If that happens, trust me, death is imminent!

*I'm pretty sure the ground squirrel was the culprit in the wall. That sucker was PISSED off in that cage! Since we're still catching mice, I guess this qualifies for an infestation. Ewwww. The little squirrel kind of boogered up the cage though so we're switching over to a bucket trap. the bucket trap is a lid that fits on any 5 gallon bucket. I has a swinging flap on the top so when a critter steps on it, it flips 'em down into the bucket. Pretty cool. I'm so NOT happy about this mouse thing. Grrrr.

internet animals

Oh yeah, I get sucked into those animal videos on the internet alllll the time! They're fantastic! You know why? Because without them, we would never know how intelligent animals really are. That they have feelings. Sometimes it's just astounding. Take for instance, the video of the water buffalo turning over a tortoise that was on his back. Or the giraffe that that took the tree limb off the antelope's antlers. Or the videos of birds actually playing. Elephants ganging up together to help a baby elephant out of a hole. Humans think they are the only creatures on earth that can feel empathy. People all over the world, thanks to smart phones and the internet have shown us differently. Humpback whales have shown us hundreds of times that they can and will protect seals, dolphins and other marine mammals from Orcas. What about the big brown bear that saved a crow from drowning? Or the orangutan that carefully guided a struggling bird, to the shore. And the countless videos of dogs showing empathy towards every kind of animal you can imagine. Even cats, known for being self centered, are sweet and caring. It's an amazing world out there!

https://youtu.be/rD6ziL-1bBY

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ce57YDBJOlb/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://youtu.be/TSPgenqMlvQ

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CedTPOeg9ot/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Poser

She's such a poser!

Bring YOUR wild things to see OUR wild things!

That's this year marketing campaign for the Indianapolis Zoo. Pretty cute isn't it!

I've been wanting to go again for the longest time. This past weekend was so beautiful weather wise. Heavenly to tell you the truth! So I asked Mom if she would come with me. I was a fantastic day!

I've never been this close to a rhino;

I was thinking of someone when I took this picture;

The giraffes were pretty cool too!

And of course there were elephants! Our zoo happens to be one of the best in the world for making African elephant babies! We have a couple right now. In the back, you can see one laying on the ground with it's mama  :-) Oh, check out those blue skies fluffy clouds!

It's a jungle out there!

I know I've said it before, but lets re-cap the wildlife I've seen IN or around our yard;

This guy belongs to our neighbor. Everybody knows him :-)

this thing grows up to be one of these, which we've also had;

and now to top it off, we have THESE in the garage!

Is this normal? Is it?! Maybe the rabbits. But come on. I saw a fox in the yard before I saw a mouse in the garage? This is NOT the country. The only thing I haven't seen is a coyote, and we do have those around. Oh, and possums. We have those too. I've just never seen one in the yard. And hawks, turkey vultures, and owls. Geesh! We're just a couple critters from opening our own wild animal parks!

Greta...

I don't want to give you the impression that Greta is perfect...she can be a goober dog too;

pretty Princess poopy Pepper the perpetual puppy

Pepper is such an odd little dog. Not in a bad way. She has a lot of enthusiasm for one...about everything! But she just has an odd personality. She's kind of timid yet very courageous. Whenever Greta and I are playing, Pepper always swoops in and tries to steal the toy. Usually Greta lets her have it. Sometimes though, Greta will fight for it. Greta will lay anywhere. Pepper will only lay in her bed or on a pillow on the couch. I think Pepper is smarter than Greta but Greta is more lovey than Pepper. Actually, they're like kids!

Anyway, we have a toy basket that we keep all the dog toys in. Yes, we DO have that many toys! Every couple days I go around and gather up all the toys and drop them in the basket.

Now, this has happened a couple other times and I chalked it up to coincidence. But now, the third time, I think it's really weird...Pepper is arranging the toys on the floor. In a line to be exact. Sometimes they're spaced out evenly too! Last night I got a picture;

Isn't that crazy?! The big dog and the pink bone were there when I got home yesterday. She added the slipper and the other 2 toys last night. What a funny girl.

Yikes!

Only in an upscale suburd would you see something like this;

Mom and I went to the local arts festival this weekend. We laughed out loud! This woman, an older woman, was walking along pushing this stroller with her fat cat in it. Really? Well, she loves her cat that's for sure!

Yesterday, the dogs found a LITTLE hole in the backyard.

Now it's a much bigger hole!

Yeah, it's all fun until the mama sticks your face under the faucet!

Good stuff/bad stuff

What a weird weekend. First off, Saturday morning, Pepper found some dead animals in the yard. It turns out there were 3 of them. At first I thought it was the mole, but then I put my glasses on. Ick. A couple feet away there was another one and a couple feet from that one there was another one. I think they were newborn kittens, literally just hours old. I was devastated to find one of them was still alive, barely. Bill said, "honey, what are you gonna do? It's gonna die, you can't save it, you don't know what's wrong w/it, you can't nurture it and raise it." He was right of course but still. Seriously, what mammal just bails out on it's newborns??? Ewwwww.

Then it was off to the Vet for Peppers annual exam and shots. She scored a 9 on a 1 to 9 scale for good health! But....she has BAAAAAAD teeth. So bad that they want to remove 9 of them asap. Poor Pepper. Some of them are infected so we antibiotics to take before they're extracted. Poor Pepper. I'm so sad for her. What a good girl...in pain, all the time, but still lovin' her hoomans. So next week she'll have her 4 top front teeth, her 4 bottom front teeth and one molar removed.  *sigh*

Ok, on to the good stuff. We went to a local British Car Show. It was small but fun and it was a glorious day after the heat waves we've had! If you're a gear head, here are some pictures;

And my personal favorite; (because it looks like a Disney cartoon car)

And Symphony on the Prairie was lovely Saturday night. I hope the rest of the summer is just like this!

Awwww

Yesterday while I was on poop patrol in the backyard, I was looking at the trees. We have a mighty oak that needs to be trimmed. Since we lost the 2 other big trees, we just have a few small ones left and a couple of dead ones. One of them is REALLY dead. Wood peckers have been making nests in it for a couple of years. I was out there, thinking about the man chopping down the tree, wondering how we (I) could tell if there were nests in the holes yet because I don't want him to chop it down if there are eggs in it! So I looked up at the holes and look what I saw...

In case you can't tell, it's a squirrels tail. It came out about an hour later. Boy, they can really squish their little bodies up!

uh oh

It's like a real live germ movie...

During super bowl week, some parent dragged their kid to super bowl village, who had the measles! Now there are at least 15 confirmed cases ~ it's practically an epidemic!!! Nope, I'm not sure why this seems like such a big deal to the media. Haven't most people been vaccinated, as a child, against the measles? I don't get it. Anyway, if there's a world wide outbreak of the measles, it started in Indy.

This bird feeder came with the house. It's kind of in the middle of the yard, with no trees around it. I'm still trying to figure out how this little sucker climbs up the pole! We need a new bird feeder.


This picture STILL cracks me up!!!

American Idol AND Survivor are on tonight. I love Ryan Seacrest and Jeff Probst. They're both the best at what they do. After just one episode of Survivor it already looks awesome. Who could have imagined that putting the tribes next to each other would have changed the dynamics soooo much! It's super duper interesting to see how all those women have just fallen apart! Wow. I can't wait till tonight!

Yikes!

So I'm walking into the house the other day and right before I get to the porch, I look down and see this;

It wasn't really interested in moving until I got the broom out. But before that, I snapped some pretty good photos :-)

Truthfully though, it was only about a foot and a 1/2 long.

We have WAY too much nature around our city house!!!

SO cuuute!

We have a brand new (2 weeks old) baby elephant at the zoo. She made her first public appearance today. Who knew a baby elephant could be so stinkin' cute!!!

this one cracked me up!