The Fauna

The plants in the yard are looking quite nice and healthy. We’ll see how things go, now the the rain’s slacked off and temperatures will be rising. I’m being more diligent with the bug spray, but the more recent animal interactions have been a little startling.

Really. When you just glance at it, don’t you think it really LOOKS LIKE A COW!

I was taking a little bit different route home last week, and was seriously startled when I drove by this house, which is not one I usually pass. I just noticed the animal from the corner of my eye, and was breathlessly startled. Seriously. At first glance, I really and truly thought it was a calf. I’m not sure calves are allowed in the city limits. Of course, upon sensibly looking at the animal, I realized it was a dog. A LARGE dog. That looked very much like a young cow. I did go around the corner and drive by a second time, to snap a picture.

I didn’t take this photo, but it looks exactly like what I saw a few days ago, as I walked across the yard. I was seriously startled because the squirrel was standing up, watching me approach, not moving, and a little bit confrontive, and not scampering away, as most squirrels do. I stopped and then took a few tentative steps ahead, and then he turned and ran off.  When the squirrels begin to stand their ground, I’m feeling pretty anxious.

The frightened kitten, huddled up by the porch.

And the most touching fauna encounter happened a couple of days ago. There’s a small flower bed at the front of the house that doesn’t get watered from the sprinkler system, so I always have to hand water that space. I’d planted some new plants, and, on Tuesday, I was watering there. I watered the new shrimp plants I’d put in and the Tuneria, an annual flower that I plant each year (both of those are heat tolerant). I watered the existing Yarrow plants and then moved the hose to a lantana plant that’s been in place for several years. To my great astonishment, something alive leapt from the center of that plant and scampered around the edge of the porch. I inched over to look and saw a huddled-up little furry animal that seemed to be a kitten. I moved back away and watered some more. I looked around the corner again, and the kitten looked at me and began to mewl. And mewl and mewl and mewl. I was very reluctant to interact because I didn’t know from where and from whom the kitten had originated. I didn’t want to make friends, just to need to take it to a shelter. And, if there was an owner nearby, I thought the kitten might be rescued by somebody who’d lost it. By time David came home from work, the kitten was gone.

Whew, I was relieved, but David said it was on the sidewalk by the porch the next morning. As of now, Thursday evening, we’ve not seen it again. I hope it has made its was to a safe place.

I should have saved the worm photos until today, I guess, to complete the invertebrate/vertebrate arc.

I don’t hear much from the worms and ladybugs, or the butterflies and the moths, but the birds in my backyard are certainly doing their part!