Wild Kingdom

 

Because I never think to carry a camera with me at all times, I mostly succeed in missing all the really dramatic visitations that occur in our yard. Hence, Robin the Good's stuffed animal collection will offer stand-ins for the actual critters. (Above is "Snake", one of Robin's favorite toys. There are three (3!!) squeakers in this play thing which lends an almost stereophonic soundscape to her rough-housing.)

Coyotes have become a regular feature of life in the wilds of suburban Connecticut. Alarmingly, last week I opened the back door at 10:00 in the morning to hear what I thought was a siren. On closer listen, I realized- as did Robin who wanted back into the house- that it was a pack of coyotes. Out and hunting in broad daylight seemingly just one backyard away. Yikes! Probably hunting turkeys...

So we have turkeys; boy do we have turkeys! There's a flock, or a slew, or... what's the group name for turkeys? A throng? Dunno but we have what must be an extended family of them. Every day or two, they make a slow-motion appearance in the horse field. The horses don't seem perturbed, but Robin goes ballistic. They show up and dine on horse poop. They also are no doubt eating endless bugs and ticks so they are indeed welcome.

(Okay, that's "Bison". I thought it was a squirrel when I purchased it, but it does have horns and on closer examination, yes, it's definitely a buffalo). Anyway, the other day when I was playing with Neko in the round pen, She kept flexing her nostrils and holding her head really high, like she was smelling something. I trying peering across our stream to the area that was holding her interest. I saw motion in the bushes and thought maybe it was our resident fox but NO! It was a large and muscular bobcat. I was brandishing my (long) lunging whip anyway, so I ran to the lower end of the round pen and swung my whip around and ululated loudly. The bobcat- correctly- assumed it was being hunted by a human lunatic and took off towards the nature preserve which our property abuts. Good riddance!

(That's "Alien". Robin doesn't care one whit for Alien but I like him/her.) I saw something that not please me at all the other night. When taking Robin out for her late-night pee, I thought I detected a large dark form near our side fence, between the birch clump and the wood pile. Holy fucking crap! It was a deer! We have been blessedly free of these cloven hoofed vermin; all they do is chew things to pieces. It scrambled to safety as I bolted out of  the house, (again) ululating wildly. (I think there is a pattern developing here. If it keeps the wildlife in abeyance, I'll gladly keep exercising the weirder aspects of my sound-making capabilities!)

("Frog" who makes a peculiar crunching/clunking noise because you put an empty plastic container inside of it. Robin's had this toy forever and he's stood the test of time and constant dog chew.) We also have a neighbor's stanky Siamese cat that insists on putting in guest appearances. I just don't like this pest, particularly because it emerged from the hay section of our barn once and the area smelled like nasty cat piss for days. It's a grudge match since then, with me hollering like a banshee and giving chase (sometimes in the car... don't ask) when I see it. (Our next door neighbors on the other side of the driveway witnessed one of my finer performances involving this cat several years back. I believe I recounted that particularly embarrassing event in a previous blog.) 

(Your guess is as good as mine, here. Chipmunk? Squirrel? Corduroy hybrid? I had to replace the eyes as Robin pulled them off early in this toys debut at our house; that only added to it's elusive identity.) So what else? We do have a fox that stops by. And Bob has a special gaggle of crows that await his mouse offerings. I think they've missed him these past few days as he recuperates. The crows were massed by the driveway and vegetable garden- unusual location for them!- and seemed to be looking for Bob. Don't tell them, but we did catch a mouse and I'll be delivering it to them soon.

Our friends (Hi Sheldon! Hi Louise!) in Hamden have had a bear ramble up the driveway recently. No thank you! You can keep the bears! We have plenty enough wild life without bears!