We get some interesting visitors here at Casa Rumpydog y June Buggie.
A few mornings ago, this little fella was hanging out near my car.
He was wary of me, but poked his head out just enough to see what the heck I was doing.
He decided I posed no immediate danger, but high-tailed it out of here just in case.
A few mornings ago Rumpy noticed someone had been sitting on our front stoop, so he and I went to investigate and discovered a young opossum sitting atop a fence post. It was too dark to get a decent photo, and I needed both hands to remind Rumpy that opossums are not a dog’s best friend.
A cute green lizard was playing on the gate when we returned from our evening walk yesterday, but he was camera-shy.
The place is teeming with squirrels. There’s an old pecan tree in my yard, and my neighbor has one as well. I’m sure those squirrels are still munching on pecans from last fall.
Sadly, we noticed that one of the neighborhood raccoons was hit and killed by a car. Rest in peace, raccoon.
What creatures visit your neighborhood?
RIP Little Raccoon. Love you Rumpy and Friends.
Posted by candygai | April 11, 2015, 5:34 AMYou too! Had any wildlife visitors to your home lately?
Posted by rumpydog | April 11, 2015, 5:35 AMWell l live in a condominium now. I see deer though, which frightens me in my small city, because I worry about their safety. We must be encroaching on their land too. I see jack rabbits and birds. Last year a gentleman friend had a houseguest with an extra houseguest. A five-foot snake, likely a non-venomous rat snake, although no guarantees. His brave and lovely dog Lucy, a Jack Russell Terrier, dealt with the uninvited guest. As a North Carolina transplant, from Western Washington, I am not great with snakes. We haven’t many snakes in Seattle, and none are poisonous. I should be more generous towards snakes. However, I know they could easily harm my only family, my cats.
In my former life in NC, we had lovely blue skinks visit, which I would liberate from curious felines. The cats would, on occasion, liberate the skinks from their detachable and I understand regeneratable tails. Stepping barefooted on a freshly discarded tails while walking on a hardwood floor in the dark was always a surprise, to say the least. I killed two copperhead snakes entering the garage, both with a garage door and then yard tools. My former spouse kept moving by hand a nest of babies to a nearby creek and they would return to a nearby shrub.
We see opossums too: now, in my former life in NC, and in Washington state. I always need to ensure my inside-only lavender girl kitty has not escaped. In the past the stripey tails and legs of baby raccoons would cause a hunt for my seal-lynx boy. As you know, with inside pets, even the most cautious of pet parents rarely feel like we have covered all our basis.
I know you work weekends, so I will wish you peace, and thank you for you for the challenging responsibility you undertake. You serve humanity, especially those who cannot speak for themselves.
Posted by candygai | April 11, 2015, 6:23 AMThanks! I hope you have a peaceful weekend as well
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:50 AMTHAT is a busy neighborhood! It’s like living at the zoo! Around here, cats hide under cars and geese leave me candies called Don’t-You-Dare in the grass. Yum!
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Posted by Genevieve Petrillo | April 11, 2015, 5:35 AMOoh! Geese! I’ll bet that can be fun, though I’ve heard they can be scary in person!
Posted by rumpydog | April 11, 2015, 5:36 AMThey’re a little scary because some of them are bigger than me!
Posted by Genevieve Petrillo | April 11, 2015, 8:35 AMAww poor Racoon 😦 i hate that..we have had three big roos on the highway here hit..breaks your heart..we did have a tortoise once too…bless him he let off a squirt of foul spray when we moved him to the dam..talk about ungrateful 🙂 i do love new visitors 🙂 🙂 hugs Fozziemum x
Posted by Fozziemum | April 11, 2015, 5:37 AMIt amazes me to see how many species thrive in spite of us humans trying to take over.
Posted by rumpydog | April 11, 2015, 5:48 AMWell they are built to adapt..we are not so much..take from us all we need to live and i wonder how we would adapt..
Posted by Fozziemum | April 11, 2015, 5:49 AMI don’t think I could survive all the whining about not having cellphone coverage. UGH!
Posted by rumpydog | April 11, 2015, 5:51 AMHahahaha see…it’s the peeps with the problems and the pets have to suffer in silence…yikes!
Posted by Fozziemum | April 11, 2015, 5:53 AMSnakes, snakes and more snakes!!!
Posted by granny1947 | April 11, 2015, 6:18 AMMaybe you could put ’em on a plane?
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:50 AMGood one. 🙂
Posted by granny1947 | April 12, 2015, 9:33 AMWe are visited by racoons, skunks, squirrels (grey, black & red), rabbits, and chipmunks on a regular basis. Have seen coyotes, foxes and groundhogs occasionally. Feathered visitors are bluejays, cardinals, american goldfinch, juncos, chickadees (love them!), robins, grackles, red-wing blackbirds, crows, cowbirds, woodpeckers, starlings and a few others whose names escape me at present. We also see the odd hawk who pops by to keep everything under control, and turkey vultures who stay high and survey for anything that’s nice and dead. Many a missing cat or small dog has been blamed on the hawks!
Posted by colinandray | April 11, 2015, 6:41 AMWe used to live in a rural area, and at night I could hear coyotes howling at night. It was such a lonesome sound. Would send shivers up my spine.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:51 AMI’m so sorry for the raccoon…. we have just some birds here… but that’s ok with our rude car drivers no one is safe :o(
Posted by easyweimaraner | April 11, 2015, 7:24 AMWe haven’t done a good job of teaching responsible stewardship of animals to our fellow humans, have we?
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:53 AMCoyotes and wild rabbits
Posted by Stumbling into GRACE | April 11, 2015, 9:15 AMSo the coyotes won’t go hungry I guess.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:52 AMOh I’m sorry the racoon was hit by a car. RIP little friend. We have a racoon family living under our front deck. Possums, squirrels, bears, foxes, coyotes, deer, mountain lions, bobcats, lotsa snakes, and all sorts of birds. Families have horses, alpacas, lamas, chickens… That’s ’nuff out of me. But… I was surprised to see that turtle and wondered if it was someone’s pet broken loose or do they run wild there? Happy weekend in your home surrounded in glorious nature. 🙂
Posted by The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap | April 11, 2015, 10:01 AMTurtles lives here in the wild. Certain times of the year ya have to be really careful because, for some reasons, turtles try to figure out why the chicken crossed the road. The consequences are disastrous, as you can imagine.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 5:02 AMThe turkey vultures won’t be far behind the dead racoon. They are scary. We have all of the above and lots of ducks and sandhill cranes.
Posted by corkscot | April 11, 2015, 10:13 AMWe do see the odd turkey vulture around occasionally, but they never went after that possum that was hit by a car nearby. Of course, the street the possum was on was far busier.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 5:03 AMMainly birds and squirrels, these days. When I was a child, there were hares, and maybe 7-8 years ago, we’ve seen badgers. It’s quite a small town. Very rarely, what we call an elk and you call moose, might get lost and run around in the street looking for a way out.
Posted by Minwynn | April 11, 2015, 11:43 AMIs that what constitutes a traffic jam in your town?
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:46 AMLOL.
Posted by Minwynn | April 12, 2015, 9:29 AMI’ll never forget the time I had all 3 huskies on a leash, and took them out for a pee only to find a BEAVER underneath my daughters slide in our yard!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Posted by Jenna,Mark “HuskyCrazed” Drady | April 11, 2015, 12:09 PMI’ll bet those huskies were ready to play with that beaver!
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:45 AMOH! Rumpy you have such amazing neighbours, we have the odd deer, Hedgehogs, pheasants, and Foxes!
Posted by willowdot21 | April 11, 2015, 3:00 PMThat sounds pretty amazing too!
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:45 AMWell it is really isn’t it. We are both lucky 😉
Posted by willowdot21 | April 12, 2015, 5:17 AMSo sad about the racoon, they take their chances when they enter any human domain I guess. You see quite a lot of wildlife where you are. We don’t have racoons or tortoises here in Oz.
I live on the edge of town at the bottom of a mountain, where we enjoy a variety of birds and parrots flying over and sitting on our fence – the sulphur crested cockatoo, kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets, and even pelicans! There are ducks, geese, crows, tiny little fairy wrens living in my hedges for protection from the big birds, the odd fox, lots of geckos and lizards, and sometimes snakes. Kangaroos and sometimes koalas when I drive past the nearby nature reserve.
Posted by Barb | April 11, 2015, 3:54 PMWow! That sure is a lot to see! Sounds exciting. The problem with wild animals is that as their habitat disappears, they move into town. Then they find well-meaning souls to feed them, or steal food meant for feral cats. But it’s not good to feed these creatures, as it teaches them to depend on humans for food, and puts them at risk.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:45 AMWe get all kinds of birds and squirrels and rabbits. We also get deers and oppossums and raccoons. One time we had a duck family in our yard. 🙂
Posted by The Island Cats | April 11, 2015, 5:25 PMWow! That sounds like fun!
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:42 AMOh…..I’ m very sorry for the raccoons…please Rip, raccoons…..
When we used to have a camellia tree in our small garden, a pair of white-eye came to it during winter….which looked very peaceful….but now almost all green plants have gone, so we don’t have cute visitors…….
Posted by eripanwkevin | April 12, 2015, 1:38 AMI bet you miss them.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:41 AMWe mostly see hedgehogs.
Posted by Clowie | April 12, 2015, 3:14 AMHedgehogs are cute!
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:41 AMPoor little Racoon. To see a turtle is very exciting, we don’t see them often here but we do get the occasional Koala, green tree snakes, wallabies, possums and lizards plus lots of birds 🙂
Posted by twoblackdoggies | April 12, 2015, 4:30 AMWe saw a little green snake in our yard a couple months ago! I like snakes.
Posted by rumpydog | April 12, 2015, 4:39 AMI like green tree snakes but sadly, they don’t last long in our yard thanks to one little black dog that chases anything that moves 😦
Posted by twoblackdoggies | April 15, 2015, 10:33 PM