Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Well I don't know about Mary, Mary, but MY garden is growing great! The rain last week really got things going. It's amazing how much better a garden does with rainwater, mostly since we've hardly seen rainwater in 2 years! Both cauliflower and broccoli almost doubled in size, and carrots, spinach and lettuce sprouted! The only downfall being the pesky rodent that inhabits my neighbor's shed. That rat is eating all of my beautiful spinach! So this weekend I plan to erect some sort of cage around that bed. It may not stop him completely, but hopefully it will be a deterrent. I also plan to sprinkle the bed liberally with cayenne as soon as the wind stops! Maybe if Willard gets a big snoutful of pepper, he won't be so inclined to come and steal from my garden. But knowing my luck, he'll be a fan of pepper and he'll come back for twice as much! Rat nibbling aside, the garden looks great, the cauliflower and broccoli are starting to make florettes (if that's what you call them) and they are so cute! Ian is looking forward to the day he can start pulling up carrots! I am looking forward to the day we eat our first head of cauliflower! I heart my garden!

This may look like a lot of mud to you, but it looks like teeny carrots, teeny lettuce, some rat-gnawed spinach and some onions to me! I have high hopes for this bed!


Itty bitty lettuce, Aaaawwww!


Look at that broccoli... can I get a YEE-HAW!


And that cauliflower! I've never seen anything so cool!


Green, growing and gorgeous!

Late Night Visitor

It was after dinner and we were all hanging out in the living room. Big Daddy and I were trying (notice I said trying) to watch Bones over the screams of obnoxious children. I thought I heard a noise, but immediately shrugged it off as something on the TV, then Monkey Man said, "Did you hear that Mom? It sounds like an owl!" We listened for a minute and we both heard it, so he and I went out back to investigate. Sure enough, there was a big, beautiful Great-Horned Owl on our chimney. We sat out on the trampoline and watched its silhouette and listened to its call. On occasion I heard another in the distance, so this may have been the same pair that landed on our chimney a couple of years ago. The owl continued to hang out, so I slowly walked across the yard and went inside to see if Big Daddy and the Piggle wanted to see it. She came with me and Big Daddy headed out to the garage to get a light. I was hoping for a mellow flashlight, but he came out with our 2 million candlepower spotlight! He shined it on the house first and slowly moved upward, trying not to flash the owl in its eyes. We were able to get a pretty good glimpse of it before it took flight. It was beautiful! It glided off the chimney almost effortlessly and soared over our neighbor's yard and off into the distance. Big Daddy kept the spotlight on it and we were able to see the gorgeous markings and the fuzzy feet! And the most amazing thing was how quiet it was when it flew! No wonder they are such effective predators! I always feel so privileged to witness an animal in the wild and I am especially fond of owls!

If you are interested in hearing what I heard last night, there is a good recording on this link. Look for Great Horned Owl (a little ways down the page) and click on "pair calling". This is a nice link for owl information in general.

http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php

RATS! Literally.

The Monkey Man and I were out in the garden yesterday, harvesting tomatoes. I have been noticing recently that alot of my Golden Boys have had big, chewed-out sections. At first I thought it was another tomato worm, but there was no telltale poop and all of the tomatoes that were chewed were close to being ripe and close to the ground. Tomato worms usually attack green fruit closer to the top. Anyway, a minute or two into harvesting we heard this big rustling and I caught a glimpse of something racing out of my bed and through the hole in the fence! Eeeeek! I did not actually witness what it was but Monkey Man said it was some sort of rodent. He said it was pretty big, but then he's never really seen a rat and a mouse together to compare size. He is convinced it's a Harvest Mouse, since logically, it has been harvesting our tomatoes, but from the size description, I'm thinkin' it's a rat. When I looked through the fence, I didn't see it, but did notice that my neighbor has a shed that doesn't sit flush on the ground and there is a whole bunch of wood rot and straw under the shed (what a nice, warm little home for a family of ratties). We also had several folks at our BBQ awhile back state that they saw a portly rat cruising along the top of the fence. So there you have it. But what do I do about it, they seem to be living in my neighbors yard and they are renters that could give a hairy rat's ass (no pun intended) about maintenance and upkeep of the property. And I certainly don't want to lay any traps in my yard, for a couple of reasons. I don't want the dog to get caught up in it, don't want the kids to get snapped and as stupid as it may sound, I've had rats as pets and I just couldn't kill one to save my life! But at least now I know what gets the dog all worked up after dark! Time to patch the holes in the fence. I know that won't take care of the problem 100%, but maybe it would make it more difficult for said rat to raid my garden!

The Emergence of Ernie!

We came home yesterday afternoon after running some errands to find something marvelous in our kitchen. Ernie the caterpillar, who became Ernie the naked pupa, was now Ernie the 5-spotted Hawkmoth! He was on the side of his tupperware enclosure resting and drying his wings. He is GORGEOUS! I took a couple of quick pictures, then decided to leave him be, they tend to be very delicate right after emergence and I didn't want to stress him. When we got up this morning, his wings were dry and he was moving about some. I took a couple of photos then took him upstairs to the Monkey Man's room. We shut the door (so if he escaped he be more easily recaptured) and I got Ernie out of the enclosure. He was still very mellow and crawled around on my hand. Both kids were mesmerized by him! I took some photos and allowed the Monkey Man to hold him for a minute. This moth has very drab wings, but his body is amazing, black and gray and white with bright orange spots (5 on each side of course). I had hoped to be able to keep him to show my science co-op on Wed. But my expert from Canada, Mr. Oehlke says that he will need to nectar and trying to do that artificially is very hard. So we can keep Ernie for the rest of today, but we must release him tomorrow night at the latest, which is pretty ironic being that tomorrow night it the full moon. Crazy how living things are so in tune with the world around them. His pupation and emergence were perfectly coincided with the full moon. Wow!

This has been a wonderful experience for the entire family. Watching something go from a big fat, bright-green caterpillar, then change into this weird, brown alien-looking thing, then into a gorgeous 2-1/2 inch moth was so amazing! I think what impressed me the most was the actual chrysalid. I examined it when I removed it from the enclosure. It was so light and delicate! It was hard, yet very, very thin and it's almost impossible for me to explain what it felt like, maybe like Celophane but not as flexible. How completely incredible that such a HUGE transformation happens inside something so completely fragile! Anyway, here are some photos of Ernie the 5-spotted Hawkmoth! And any of you out there that doubted my reasons for keeping him can now look at the amazing creature he turned into. Pest or not, he is something to behold!

Ernie makes some changes

As you all probably remember, I took in a LARGE tomato horntail caterpillar after finding him raping and pillaging through my tomato vine. And I'm sure you all wondered why in the world I would take in such a hideous, destructive beast and the answer was... good science! As a homeschooling mother you have to take any opportunity you get to teach your child something! And what a wonderful opportunity to have a science project pretty much dropped in my lap!

I did alot of research and came across an amazing man in Canada who raises silkmoths and has one of the most comprehensive sites on Sphingidae and Saturnidae moths. Please see: http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/danjansphinx.htm if you are interested in learning more about these amazing creatures. Anyway, after contacting Bill, I was told to put the caterpillar in an airtight container with foliage for him to eat. I was to change out the foliage every other day. The first couple of days, Ernie ate like a beast, and pooped like a beast, then one morning I opened the container and there was this stiff, slightly brown, dehydrated looking thing. Well, Ernie was obviously a goner! I contacted Bill and he said to poke it to make sure. Well, I was pulling out the tomato leaves and one brushed up against Ernie and that thing flailed around the cookie tin like it was possessed by the devil! I almost crapped myself! I'm not really squeamish when it comes to bugs, but when you're pretty sure something is dead and it flips out, it has a tendency to unnerve you a bit! At that point, I removed all the foliage, put in a clean paper towel and closed his lid. We checked on him once a day and within two days he had fully pupated into what is called a "naked" pupa and left a big wad of dry shedded skin, much like a snake. I left him alone for a few days, then I transferred him per Bill into a deep Tupperware container layered with damp paper towels, bubble wrap and dry paper towels. We are hoping he emerges within the next 4-5 weeks, otherwise, I will have to make special preparation for him to "overwinter" in my refrigerator! Ugh! That damn thing better emerge! Last thing I need is a pupated caterpillar in my fridge all winter!

Oh well... I just have to keep telling myself, "Great science, great science, great science!"

OK, seriously???

I went outside earlier to retrieve my recycling bins as storms are rolling through and the wind is bad. For some reason I noticed that there was a bunch of fluffy white stuff all over my Cypress Vine out front. So I pulled down one of the runners to investigate and the white fuzzy stuff was bugs! Little tiny bugs, all over the vine, covered in this strange white stuff. I figured it must be some type of early stage caterpillar, so I looked and looked at photos and descriptions on whatsthatbug.com but I found nothing. So just for shits and giggles, I typed "small, fuzzy white bugs" into the search engine and sure enough... MEALYWORMS! A sort of cousin to the aphid, and we all know how fond I am of aphids. But seriously, I have had the summer from hell in respect to garden pests in the veggie garden, but my front flower bed seemed all hunky dory, now this??? I mean seriously, what more am I going to have to endure this summer with my gardens? Are swarms of locusts and Africanized honey bees heading my direction?!?! Shit! It is just so aggravating to me, I have worked so hard to have something more than dying grass and burford hollies and I seem to be running into issues left and right here. I didn't have near this aggravation last year. Is it the drought? I always thought aphids didn't like severely hot weather. Either way, I am beginning to lose my patience and I'm seriously gonna start killing things soon!

How I plan to deal with my tomato worm problem...

Fried Green Tomato Worms

3 tablespoons olive oil
16 tomato hornworms
4 medium green tomatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
Salt and pepper to taste
White cornmeal
In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil. Then lightly fry the hornworms, about 4 minutes, taking care not to rupture the cuticles of each insect under high heat. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Season tomato rounds with salt and pepper, then coat with cornmeal on both sides.

In a large skillet, fry tomatoes until lightly browned on both sides

Top each round with 2 fried tomato hornworms.

Garnish the paired hornworms with a single basil leaf.

Agriculture sucks!

As I'm sure you were all aware, I planted a bunch of squash as the vine borers are supposedly NOT laying eggs at this time. What a crock! They took out 6 out of 9 plants! I still have one zucchini, one lemon squash and one pumpkin, we'll see if they manage to survive or not. My garden has been overrun with aphids. Who would have thought such little bugs could make such a HUGE mess of things! Little BASTARDS! Then the other morning I went out to find one of my golden boy tomatoes half-eaten. It looked liked someone took a big bite out of it. I was thinking maybe a raccoon or birds or maybe even a bat, I didn't know. I left it alone and the next morning, went out to find the tomato right next to it looking the same way, like someone had come and taken a huge bite of it! UGH, what was up?!?! Then I got to really looking at the plant and the bed and there it was, the telltale sign... LOADS of caterpillar poop! OH NOOOOO! I searched that vine from top to bottom and could find nothing. So I came inside and looked up tomato worms on the internet. Not that I don't know what one looks like, I remember my mom picking them out of the garden and squishing them with sticks as a kid, I know... gross! But I just needed to refresh my mind and maybe see how they hide, if it was UNDER leaves or next to stalks or what. After that I went outside and found the little culprit within a matter of minutes, hanging out, fat as could be! Of course my first instinct was to throw him on the ground and squish him, but if you know me, you know I have a problem killing things (OK, squash borers, aphids and cockroaches aside), so what does any card-carrying homeschooler mom do??? She grabs the butterfly habitat, cuts off some of the tomato vine and transfers giganto Tomato Horntail Caterpillar into the enclosure. We will have one of two outcomes, he will either eat lots of leaves and tomatoes I'm willing to share and turn into a chrysalid that is bound to become a 5-spotted Hawkmoth or he will keel over and die if he has been parasitized by a wasp. Either way, great biology! If he becomes a hawkmoth, he will be observed for a day, then humanely released FAR away from MY garden! And of course, you can't keep something and not name it. He has been dubbed "Ernie" by the Monkey Man. Ernie the Tomato Horntail, with such an evil name for a caterpillar, I was thinking more along the lines of "Severus" or "Beelzebub" mostly since that thing was hell on my tomatoes! But Ernie it is.

I hate seeing the crumpled leaves, telltale sign of aphids!


Stinkin' aphids!


Victimized Golden Boys!


The culprit...

The Ugly Duckling

One of our little excursions in Clovis was to Ned Houk park to see the buffalo and feed the ducks and geese. While we were feeding the critters, we noticed this funny little black duck. He had absolutely no fear of us and my Mom-in-law said she thought we could just reach out and grab it. And sure enough, she reached out and picked up this little duck. Now it was not a baby duck, but not an adult either, it had some adult plummage, but still had a fuzzy head. And it was definitely the odd duck out! There were no other siblings and no other adult ducks that looked even remotely like it. After we took turns petting it, we let it go and I crouched down to take a picture of it. It made a mad dash and ran right up underneath me and stayed there, like it was wanting me to sit on it or something! So I sat down and it crawled right into my lap and laid its head down. I have NEVER seen a wild duck do this so I began to get suspicious. We spent the next half hour petting and loving and hugging this little duck. It was so sweet! But the time came for us to have lunch, so we started to walk to the car. Our goofy little friend began to follow us. I told everyone to get in the car and I picked the little duck up walked him away a bit and tossed him out into the pond. As I turned to go to the car I noticed that it was scrambling to get out of the water and when he did he took off chasing after me. I ran like hell to the car, jumped in and drove off. I stopped a little ways away to make sure it had stopped following and wasn't in the street. It was just standing there, looking confused. It broke my heart! I believe this little duck was probably someone's Easter duckling and when it got too big, they decided it was perfectly fine to go dump it at the pond. I HATE that tradition! Ducklings and chicks are NOT disposable pets! If you can't care for one, you should never bring one home! Anyway... off my soapbox, I spent the rest of the day and most of the night trying to figure out how the hell I could transport a duck from Clovis to Austin. And IF I managed to successfully get it here, what the hell I would do with it! I live in a suburban neighborhood, our Homeowner's Association doesn't take kindly to raising poultry! I didn't go back to get him, but I regret it to this day. All this little guy wanted was a mommy and a family to love it. I spend so much time telling my kids that it's our responsibility as good humans to take care of the little things that need our help, then I didn't follow through with it. I could kick myself! The little duck didn't seem unhealthy and hopefully he was foraging OK. I know they are resilient and have instincts, so I hope with all of my heart that this little duck grows up and has a happy life in the park. And I am touched that this little bird allowed me and my children to interact with it and have a wonderful "ducky" experience. Someday, if I ever have property, I will own ducks all because of this little guy!

The Duck...


A Piglet and a duck!


Duck kisses


Sweet ducky in my lap


One last ducky hug!

Just trying to help...

I was driving the kids to activity co-op this morning down a fairly busy 4-lane highway. I saw ahead of me two old Labrador Retrievers walking in the road. I could tell they were older as the were kind of droopy and really slow, they had obviously escaped from a backyard and taken a swim in a ditch bank or something and they were tired. As I drove by, I couldn't stand it, two good ol' dogs on a busy road. I made a U-turn and headed back, kids in tow. I pulled up behind the doggies, put on my flashers and attempted to get the old guys in the car. They looked like they were considering the lift, but not sure. I had my doors open, calling for them, all the while getting honked at, flipped off and yelled at. Eventually another mom in an SUV pulled over and she and I managed to at least herd them off the road and into an open field that looked like it might have connected to the neighborhood that they may have escaped from. At that point, they were at least off the busy road and had a chance of finding their way home. So I got back in the car and drove off, hoping I wouldn't drive back down that road to go home later and find 2 dead dogs.

Yet again, the lack of compassion in the general public makes me sick! All I was trying to do was get a couple of good dogs, who were probably well-loved by someone, off the road and only one other person stopped to help and the rest heckled, honked and yelled profanities at me... NICE! I mean what should I expect? I was blocking one of the two lanes in that direction and therefore people actually had to drive around me and they may have been 30 seconds late to where they were going! I am absolutely disgusted with a large majority of the human race! A bunch of ego-centric assholes with no concern for anyone or anything else on the planet and we wonder why things are so screwed up! Common courtesy, polite behavior, concern for others, all gone. It's all about numero uno and everyone else can go to hell. I personally don't like this arrangement and I have complete disdain for all those that are OK with this status quo. I'm sorry, but you still open doors for old ladies, you still give up your seat on the bus for a pregnant woman, you still let someone with two items ahead of you in the grocery line if you have a full basket, you still stop and try to help two old dogs off the road to keep them from getting mashed!!! It's the RIGHT THING TO DO! I can only hope that at least some of my generation is raising their kids to have better manners, because at this point, manners are all but obsolete and it is really driving me crazy! And all those people that honked and yelled at me today can just piss off, someday karma's gonna come around and bite you in the ass and I'm sad I won't be there to see it!

Andy the Two-tailed Anole

We have a little friend that Monkey Man has lovingly named Andy the Anole. Andy has two tails, we don't know if he was born that way or if part of his tail fell off and he grew two back. Either way, it's pretty freaky! I see him almost everytime I take the trash out, he's almost like a pet and we all look forward to seeing him!

A Little Visitor!

Although I have been sick as a dog this week, there have been moments here and there worth blogging about. While working on the computer Big Daddy groaned and said there was a baby bird hopping around on the front porch, running into the storm door. We have had ALOT of mishaps with the sparrows this year, they keep nesting in precarious places that are not fit for baby birds and I have found several dead. So I was a little wary when I came to check on this bird. As it turns out, it was a nice surprise. Not only was it healthy, but it was a lovely little fledgling blue jay! Normally I would have been worried, but the first year we were here, I found a fledgling starling and got very worried about it and called an animal rescue place. They stated that fledglings end up on the ground, not ready to fly yet, but that the mommy and daddy stay close to it and feed it until it masters flight. So I was happy to see this little guy and had to take a couple of pics as he was just TOO cute! The bright, radiant, blue feathers contrasted with all the fuzziness of his baby down! So sweet! I am hoping he did alright, he rested a bit in my bottlebrush, then I haven't seen him since. On occasion I hear him call for mommy, but no visuals. I suppose as long as the neighborhood cats stay away, he'll fair just fine!

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people?!?!

So, what I'm about to discuss is nothing new, I've heard about this kind of stupid crap for years, but everytime I hear about it, it just pisses me off even more. There was a shark attack in California. The shark attacked a swimmer, severed his legs and he bled to death on the beach. Now there is a huge search for this shark, so they can kill it. And this is where I get pissed off. Do I think it's horrible that this man had his life cut short while he was out enjoying a swim? Of course, loss of life sucks. Do I think they need to be hunting down and killing said shark? Absolutely not! This animal was doing what this animal does, it was feeding on whatever prey happened to be in its vicinity at the time. You think a shark has the capability to look and say, "Oh shit, that's a human, I better not eat him, they don't like it when we eat them!" This is a highly specialized predator, searching for prey in ITS environment! Once we set foot inside the ocean, we are NOT on our turf anymore, henceforth we must realize that by entering the ocean we are entering ourselves into the food chain! How can we blame a top predator for going after an easy meal?

And besides, do we not go into their environment and hunt them? Turnabout is fair play people. If we can go out and hunt them to damn near extinction and pollute their environment, why do we get so pissed off when one them takes one of us out? Believe me, even with all reported shark attacks each year, I am sure that number is less than one boat's shark catch in one week. You don't see them sending search parties on land looking for the fishermen that wiped out all their buddies. And if that isn't bad enough, what about us? We get so outraged that a wild animal kills a human, yet we hardly bat an eye at all the killing that is happening in Iraq and Darfur and all over the world. So it's OK for us to kill other humans in the name of religion, oil, politics, whatever, but DAMN that shark for eating that swimmer guy! We need to blast his scaly ass out of the Pacific!

It is just another blatant misuse of human power on this planet. Instead of trying to understand and peacefully co-exist with other species, we have deemed that we have the right to kill and plunder as we please, not at all holding ourselves to the standards we expect wild animals to adhere by. Absolute righteous human bullshit if you ask me. And like the old bumper sticker says, "The more I know humans, the more I like my dog!"

It's that buggy time of year again!

I have come to love the spring and summer in Central Texas. There are so many interesting critters, even in my own little suburban yard. I have found many sweet, little anole lizards over the last couple of weeks, one of which has two tails! I don't know if he is an actual mutant, or if he lost part of his tail at one time and it grew back two, I tend to think the latter. Either way, I see him frequently and am fond of him! My neighbor kids were out last week and came across this wonderful moth. It was very lethargic, so I don't know if it was recently out of the cocoon or if it was close to dying, but it let me pic it up to get a better look at it and take some photos. My son said the markings looked like that of a snow leopard, what a great observation! After a little bit of research, I have discovered that this is called a Giant Leopard Moth. Now I don't know if you remember, and this was probably from the now defunct "Living, Surviving, Seeking" blog, I had captured a fuzzy, black caterpillar last year, I think we called him Fuzzy Wuzzy. Anyway, that caterpillar is what turns into this beautiful moth, I have included a pic of Fuzzy from last year. Who knows, maybe this moth was Fuzzy himself! How cool would that be? So we are kicking off what will hopefully be a wonderful season of discovery in my own little yard!

What a sight!

I was in the front yard yesterday with my kids and the neighbor kids, watching them all scooter and play. We were just hanging out, enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon. All of a sudden Big Daddy goes, "Look at all those birds!" So I turned quickly to see this ENORMOUS flock of birds! I think they must have been some type of crane, as they were huge, but they weren't calling like Sandhill Cranes usually do. They were pretty low and very quiet and there must have been well over 100 of them! I raced in the house as fast as I could to grab the camera, but they were pretty far away by the time I got back out. But I did manage to catch a decent image. It was a truly incredible sight! I have just never seen so many cranes in a single group, it was so cool! And just an FYI, you may want to click on the photo to get a better look.

It's Leap Day!

So... what should I do with my one extra day of 2008? Hmmmmm... if I could do anything I wanted, I would blink my eyes and be on some beautiful white sand beach, where the sun is shining, there is a slight, warm breeze and I would drink wonderful drinks made with fresh coconuts and pineapples, I would have a massage, pedicure, and manicure. I would eat luscious tropical fruits and fresh fish. I would swim and snorkel in warm water and I would be at peace with everything around me. I would have Big Daddy there to enjoy all these wonderful things with me and I would have my children there, running and leaving their sweet little footprints in the sand and splashing in the water (of course all of this would be under the direct supervision of an EXTREMELY qualified young woman who could take care of all the meltdowns and whining!) It would be a wonderful day!

As it is... I will probably blog a bit, have a nice big cup of hot tea with sugar and milk, do some dishes, pick up the house for the weekend, take my kiddos to park day, finish my window seat cushion, and go through some pregnancy photography sites (I'll explain later) and do my best to show my sweet little kitty I love her. Sadly, I have an appointment to put her down tomorrow, her pain is extreme and I can't let her suffer any longer. I am so NOT alright with all this, but what can I do? Anyway, don't want to get into it too much right now, I need to have a halfway decent day and don't need to start crying this early!

Something you don't see everyday...

A possum waddling at high speed across the driveway at the J.J. Pickle Research facility in the middle of the day! What, did it escape from the facility (possibly from the vertebrate paleontology lab)?? ;-) Anyway, just weird to see a possum cruising around in broad daylight.

Baby Snaa-haakes!

Everytime I hear the words "baby snakes" it makes me think of a Frank Zappa song! You may be wondering why in the hell I would have even been thinking of baby snakes at all. Well... as it turns out, I was in the front yard, putting lights on the tree when my son informed me that there was an earthworm on the sidewalk and he wanted to pick it up and put it in the dirt of our flower bed. I told him I'd help as those earthworms are wiggly little buggers and they kind of freak him out when they do that. I went over prepared to pick up a misplaced worm and realized that it was no worm, but a baby snake of some sort. I'm glad I told him not to pick it up. Granted, I'm sure it was nothing but a little garden snake, but when they're that small, it's kinda hard to tell, but it didn't have that typical v-shaped head, so that was a relief! I went to the garage and got a little tin (that did have popcorn in it) and I coaxed the little guy into the tin. We showed him to my neighbor's kids and then decided we would release the little guy at the farm just outside the neighborhood. I didn't want to leave him on the sidewalk to be picked off by a bird, and honestly, even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't poisonous, I really didn't feel the need to have it cruising around my house either, mostly since there are alot of cats that lurk around. The farm seemed a much safer spot for this little guy and I'm sure a place with a greater potential for food items. Then again, I don't know what a snake that small eats, bugs maybe? Anyway, here are a couple of photos, we enjoyed its company while we had it and hopefully it lives a long healthy life on the farm!

Why is it always me?

While out in the driveway, unloading some stuff for an upcoming garage sale, I heard a faint and high-pitched mew from the other side of my car. I walked around and here is this adorable little cat. My friend and I say, "Well hello, what are you doing here?" At which time she comes slinking up, rubbing up against our ankles and being sweet as can be. I lean to pet her and notice that she has full teets, so obviously there are kittens somewhere. However, she is so skinny and I can't bear it. She may be another species, but she is a mother and I can't turn my back on a mother in need. I went inside and popped open a can of tuna and mixed it with some dry cat food. I took it outside and that little girl tore into that food like she hadn't eaten in days! She was SO ravenous that during her meal she spied a dragonfly buzzing by and stopped eating long enough to leap on and immediately eat the dragonfly and then returned to her tuna and cat food. I let her eat and went back inside, hoping that she would get a full belly and make her way back to her kittens. Yeah, no such luck, she has been sleeping like a log in our flowerbed all afternoon and she partook of some more dry food when I took it out for her. I am worried about the babies. Are they around here in bushes somewhere, are they in someone's house and she just got lost while hunting dragonflies, or did she and babies get booted and the babies didn't make it. So I am at a impasse. I can't fetch her up and take her to the humane society and risk the lives of the babies, but I worry about her roaming the streets, there are coyotes in our area and cars. So, I guess I just sit and wait. Maybe she will get a full tummy and some much needed rest and make her way back home tonight. I can only hope. Or if she needs help, I hope she feels fed and comfortable enough here to go get them this evening and bring them here, then I can take them all to the humane society. It just sucks, all stray animals within like a 5 mile radius seem to gravitate to where I am, they must know that I can't overlook them, I just don't have the heart. Some psychic or karmic vibe that I send out letting all little animals in dire straits know that I am a big, fat, sucker! I'll keep everyone posted this latest saga!

That's crap!

So here's how it starts, we find a big, fat caterpillar at the park. We bring him home, set him up in the butterfly enclosure that we used to raise Painted Ladies last year. Anyway, I decide to do a little research on the care and keeping of caterpillars, after all, I don't want him to meet his ultimate demise in my care. I would be sad and my son would be devastated! While aquiring other tidbits of information I discover that caterpillar poop is called "frass". Actually, upon further research I find that "frass" is the preferred term for bug poop in general, who knew? Is it just me, or does there seem to be a veritable shit-load of words to describe, well shit? I mean there are the obvious ones like feces, dung and excrement. But what about the more specialized terms? Let's see, we have "guano" for bats and birds, yet bird poop is also described as a "dropping" which seems quite accurate if you ask me! Rodents produce pellets and rabbits also produce pellets, but they also produce things called cecotropes, which are reingested by the rabbit. Hello, call me crazy but I'd rather have 4 stomachs and chew cud than to have to eat anything that comes out my arse, but hey, if it works for them, cool. Elephants produce "balls" (approximately 500 lbs worth in a 24-hour period...call me impressed!), worms produce "vermidung", and whales, bears, and Bigfoot (or would that be Bigfeet?) produce "scat". Actually scat is pretty universally used to describe feces of a many animals, I have heard skunk poop referred to as scat and so on. Let's not forget our farmyard friends, we have manure as a general term and bovidung if we want to be polite, but then there are cow pies or patties, meadow muffins and prairie chips or in Scotland they call it "coo plab" and in Newfoundland they call it "cow plates" (are their cows bigger?). Horses in the country make horse apples, but in the city they make "alley apples" (I guess that's what your local police horse leaves behind!). There are "moose berries", "elk duds" and "deer pellets". And I think it is safe to assume that dog poop could technically be referred to as "contact information"! And as much as I might like to go on, I won't even get started on the infinite variety of words and phrases that we humans use to describe our own excrement. Maybe in another blog, in fact, maybe I'll send out a poll to all my friends to find out their favorite terminology. Stay tuned for that!