Critter Country

Growing up in Connecticut, the critters I had to contend with included:

* raccoons
* Squirrels
* Chipmunks
* Bats
* The occasional garden snake

We had a sort of pet squirrel we named Funny Face, as she had a big freckle like mark over her nose. Very easy to spot. Mom had her trained! She'd tap on the kitchen window and Funny Face would come sit on a branch just outside the window and would gladly partake of whatever Mom was handing out, be it Oreo cookies, dog biscuits or stale bread.

My best friend, Angie, and I would feed raccoons and their families from Ange's back door - again stale bread was a favorite, or dog cookies. Sure, their ears looked like an animated movie because of all the vermin living there, but who did we know who had ever actually been bitten by a raccoon?? No one - they were cute and as far as we were concerned, harmless!

Critters here on this desert planet take on a whole different dimension altogether. This morning for instance, as I went out for my bike ride, I saw many cotton tail bunnies. Cute, right? You-bectha - they are adorable. What they bring around, however is not so adorable.

On my walk today, that quickly turned into a bike ride for what will be obvious reasons, I saw:

1 Coyote
12 bunnies that were being chased by said coyote
14 quail (also good food for coyotes)
1 dead snake.

As far as I'm concerned, the only snake worth seeing is a dead one, and even that gave me the heebee-geebies as I passed it going 20mph!

Add to this mix:

Bobcats
Javalinas (wild boars with the nastiest teeth you've ever seen - think the ROUS's from Princess Bride)
Mountain Lions
Scorpions
Gila Monsters (a large lizard with a big appetite)
Terrantulas
Black Widows

Yeah - makes me kinda miss old Funny Face and those mite-infested 'coons!!