Asphalt Jungle

Before I start on my new topic, I wanted to give an update on Squirrel's baby doll. Today, I spotted her sans giant pull-up. She has butterfly and heart stamps all over the back of her head and neck. I am not sure what she and Squirrel have been up to recently, but she (baby, I think her name is WooWoo) looks pretty tired.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.................



I have seen some pretty interesting things on the road. Literally on the road, in our very neighborhood. We moved here almost three years ago. While we were building our home, I would drive by daily during chauffeur duty. One day, as I am driving up a steep hill, I see a squirrel or something on the road. Expect it to move quickly away, doesn't move...wait it will run any minute....OMG! It is a tarantula in all it's glory. And no- it did not move more than an inch. Luckily, I had room to maneuver around it. I later told our builder that some one's pet tarantula was running around loose. He laughed and said they live here. What??? I think I had seen a few tarantulas- but they were always in a glass CASE at the ZOO.
Now, three years later the tarantulas and we are friends. They are actually interesting, not that aggressive and only come out August and September. I have made friends with much worse....

Last summer, I was zipping down the driveway to get the kids from school. Luckily I wasn't changing the station and my brakes were working pretty well, because stretched out across the driveway, soaking up the sun, in all it's glory, was a 5 foot king snake. Now, I did not know it was a king snake at the time. Not a snake expert. But I did know it was not a rattle snake. OK... I am waiting for him to move. Waiting.......move the car a little more..... Not moving.....looking my way, but not moving. What the heck am I going to do now? I am armed with a purse and maybe a flashlight. I get out and kind of stamp my feet and he slowly slithers over the curb of the driveway all the while staring at me with his beady little eyes. The scary thing is the second he was entirely over the curb, he became completely INVISIBLE in the grass. Remember, he was 5 feet long. There could be dozens out there for all I know. Found out king snakes are harmless and do eat gophers, so I consider him a new friend as well.


Well, of course animal traffic does get weirder. The other day, I was driving down the road. *Funny how it always starts out that way* and I see a furry, little something galloping down the road. Oncoming traffic! It turns out to be a big mouse. "Why is this critter running down the road?" I was wondering- probably out loud to myself. Well, it turns out, a cat was chasing him down the road. Of course, I mean why else would the mouse cross the road? Actually, they weren't crossing. They obeyed all traffic laws and stayed in their lane. There were no other cars around, so you will just have to take my word for it.

I wish I could have taken a picture, but the best I could do was try to photoshop something. We passed each other- destination and destiny unknown. Good luck mouse.

Of Mice and Men

Last winter, my mom was staying a week with us. She was helping out one of numerous times during The Medical Marathon of Margerie. Which maybe just happens to rhyme with surgery. We are returning home from some appointment when we decide to stop by this nursery (hey, another rhyme) along the freeway.

It is one of those funky places, with a 20-foot iron T-Rex sculpture out in front. We decide we just have to check out this place. We were amazed at the eclectic selection. They had statues of frogs inside pots, which were on top of benches, next to fruit trees. I found a miniature cast-iron stove with little frying pans for $11. We must have spent an hour looking around when we discovered a cute silver tabby cat, curled up in a sunny spot on a garden chair. Being cat freaks, we inquired. Gal working there tells us he came to them as a kitten. He was born feral in the wood pallets at the farm supply next door. One day the coyotes got his entire family. He migrated over to the nursery and the nursery owners fed and adopted him. He was reportedly a very mellow fellow and an excellent mouser.

Sometime later, Mom and I finally make it to the outdoor register. By that time we notice a white male rooster has joined the tabby cat on the chair. We remark how unusual it was for the two of them to get along so well. Gal says "Oh, that's because he raised him." Say what? The nursery owners had, a couple of years prior, brought a flock (or whatever you call it) of chickens to live at the nursery. One sad day, they came to work to find some coyotes had devoured all the flock but one little chick. After the tragedy, the chick started following the cat around. The cat probably felt bad for him, as his family had met the same fate. The chick grew into a rooster and the cat and the rooster remained friends.

The owner gal then told us about how one day she was moving a bag of potting soil, when a baby mouse ran out from behind it. She hears "Bawk, bawk, bagulpp!" And turns around just in time to see the rooster swallow up the mouse. "Best damn rooster I ever had" were her concluding remarks.

Now I am pretty sure this is a unique relationship between a male cat and a rooster. But the two of them were bound to screw up something! And I do get a chuckle about this story every time I look at that little cast-iron stove.