Wildlife Woes...

If we're friends on Facebook, there's no doubt you're familiar with our tales of wildlife that exist in our very own animal preservation area backyard....in fact, you may have grown weary of the oft repeated groundhog sightings.  But, we've reached a new level in the circle of life that constantly turns...

For those of you that are unaware of our animal adventures, allow me to enlighten you.  We live in a fairly crowded suburb of Pittsburgh.  From our house, we've walked to the McDonald's.  Giant Eagle slash shopping center is not much further than McD's.  The streets are busy and the sounds of sirens are a daily song.  When it's nice enough to have the windows open, one can hear what the neighbors are watching on t.v. (John and Patty are BIG Jeopardy fans!).  My point is, we do not live in the country! 

But you wouldn't know it by our animal population!  Stray cats?  Check!  Deer?  Check!  Four million squirrels?   Check!  Pigeons that the Jeopardy neighbors raise?  Check!  If you listen carefully, you can hear the sweet sounds of Barry White drifting out from under our shed...this is where the ever multiplying ground hogs live.

The other night, we heard what sounded like a deer rubbing it's antlers on a tree.  However, Jay being so wise to deer habits, knew that this was the wrong season for rubbin' so we listened closer.  Turned out to be some type of animal on animal crime.  Cats chasing each other or other critters is not so unusual...but this!  This was different.  Whatever was doing the chasing was fast (so, not a groundhog...they tend to waddle), heavy (so, not a fox) and had a low, guttural growl (so, not a cat or dog).  What then?  Jay posed the question to the Facebook world and immediately responses came back voting that it was a coyote!  COYOTE!!!!????  This could be dangerous!  Should we warn the neighbors?  Maybe send out an FYI note?

WARNING!!!!  THIS PART GETS GROSS!!!

Eh. We didn't do any of those things...but what we did do was smell something awful when we were in the backyard yesterday.  I thought it was garbage.  I was wrong, but man!  I wish I had been right!  Jay discreetly toured the edge of our property looking for the source of the stench.  Sure enough, he found the culprit.  It was a rabbit only identified as such by his little cotton tail and long hind legs.  Peter didn't have much of a head to speak of.  He did, however, have a colony of maggots munching away at where his face would've been.  Sorry for the graphic details...but UGH!  I know I have a lot of weird quirks and things I don't like or that freak me out...but maggots!  I truly have a nightmare inducing fear of maggots.  UGH!  YUCK!  BLECH!

So, what should we do with this discovery?  I voted for leaving it there, letting nature takes it's course, pray that the children didn't see it and forget the whole thing ever happened.  I mean, the smell would eventually dissipate, right?  Jay voted for disposing of the body.  For fear of maggots getting on him or (gasp!) in the house I vehemently opposed this choice!  No way!  Uh-huh!  Leave it be!  Get rid of it how?  Where?  No!

This evening as I was putting the kids to bed, Jay went out to mow the lawn.  After some time had passed with no hum of the mower, Jay came in to say the he had successfully scooped Peter into a heavy duty garbage bag.  Grrrrrrrr!  But now what?  We couldn't leave it in the garbage cans.  Did I mention our raccoon friends earlier?  Plus, with the recent heat, we've just created nature's own Easy Bake Oven.  Hmmmm?  Jay said he would take care of it and left...as in, put the bag in his trunk and drove away.  I'm going with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on this one.

Now that Jay has changed clothes and thoroughly inspected all contaminated clothing (including the seams) and his trunk for lingering maggots, we're settling in to a quiet evening of listening to the birds chirp and critters run for their lives.

What is this????!!!!???? Seriously!

I know I've been lacking in any kind of interesting post as of late.  Maybe because I've been distracted by this....

Seriously....what in the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks are these orange, claw like fingers growing out of the garden????  We have never seen these before, ever.  They have just sprouted...the last pic is of what I can only assume is the seed.  The seed is soft and squishy like a marshmallow.  It didn't smell like anything, though I can't really smell at all due to congestion...and yes, I know it's weird to smell stuff, but it's what I do.   It did provide a good opportunity to teach the kids that these are not in fact carrots or witch fingers and how produce grows and the unlikely nature of buried witches in the front yard.

Anywho....they're pretty creepy.  Any thoughts?

Sure do love this kid...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY 2 YEAR OLD BABY TREY!!!!!

Do me a favor and pretend that I wasn't as big as a house when I went to be induced...thanks.

Hit The Nail On The Head...errr Toe!

My kids don't wear shoes every time we play outside.  Whew!  I feel better now that I've confessed that tidbit. 

Sometimes, they might step on something sharp like a thorn or pine needle...nothing major.  Every once in a while, a scratch may occur from running, jumping, skipping or the like...again, no harm, no foul.  Or maybe the baby will pick up this....

and drop it on his teeny, tiny, baby big toe.  Oops.

As I was playing catch with The Bigs, I saw Trey monkeying with the 2x4 and thought not much of it.  Why is there a 2x4 in our front yard?   He had it in his hands for approximately 5 seconds before he dropped it.  He knew and I knew immediately that it was going to be bad.  I rushed over to him, scooped him up and his toe was already bleeding...a lot. 

After convincing Joe and Bella that no, Trey was not going to die, I shuffled everyone inside and put my non existent nursing skills to work...this included grabbing the nearest, cleanest wash cloth and calling Jay.  I just couldn't tell if Trey needed to go to the emergency room or not.  So, following Jay's advice, I put Trey in his high chair and gave him some blackberries and turned on some rockin' Fresh Beat Band.  He stopped crying, but his toe didn't stop bleeding.

Let me preface this next part with a disclaimer.  I LOVE our doctor's office.  The nurses are always helpful and make time for us, plus all the doctors are great with our kids.  But the following conversation was comical.  Being a tad flustered, I was tripping on my words at first trying to describe the situation.  This is what Jay heard from my side of the convo.  "Yes, he was barefoot." "Yes, a 2x4." "Right, outside, no shoes, a 2x4." "He'll be 2 next week." "Yep, barefoot."  Sigh...."We'll be right there."

The doctor and nurse were great, though, despite Trey's crying and screaming "HAVE A NICE DAY!" and waving Bye-Bye incessantly.  We were home in no time.

I took him this morning to get an x-ray...which was none too pleasant to keep a 2 year old occupied in an adult oriented waiting room and an hour long wait.  But all's well that ends well...no broken bones.

Trey is not bothered at all by his toe and look where we were tonight after dinner....

Outside...barefoot...again.  Don't tell on me, please.