Wild America

You know, I was worried that when I moved out of the rural countryside I would lose all the wildlife that tended to wander around the yard. I no longer have this fear because in all the years we lived "in the country" we never had this happen:

That is our livingroom window, and _that_ is a 6 point buck. I wish the picture was better, but I had to zoom so as not to spook him, seeing as how HE WAS STARING IN MY WINDOW! He munched on the bush and then moseyed across the front yard.

There is quite a collection of animals around - like the contingent of squirrels that have a man posted outside every morning when I walk to the car. There is also a resident chipmunk that dwells in a stump and seems convinced that I am squating on his property. At any given time you can hear someone scampering through the leaves on the ground - causing the official theme song for our front yard to be that rap hit: Every Day I'm Ruslin'.

Case in point: I'm looking out my 2nd story bedroom window one morning, partaking for a moment in the wonder of dawn (well, pre-noon anyway) when I spy one of the afore-mentioned squirrels poking about in the lawn just by the porch. All of the sudden he explodes into motion, tripping over his own tail while scrambling into the bushes. I swear I could see his eyes bug out and heard a tiny "Oh, shit!"... Just as I'm trying to process the cause of such sudden panic, the answer arrives in the form of a hawk gliding by. This bird with a wing-span of three feet passes _below_ eye level right in front of the house - appearantly dead reckoning off the sidewalk. (whoosh). I am dumbfounded at this and experience one of those "point with your mouth open and look around to see if anyone else just saw that" moments.

In conclusion, if you are ever hiking up my driveway and hear something coming at you through the forest, relax - it's probably one of our harmless managerie screwin' with you. Like a gaggle of 19 turkeys.

Or it could be a rabid bear like the one that carried off the neighbor's kid. What - I'm joking... he wasn't rabid.