Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Great Outdoors that is the Greater South Side

*Disclaimer:  This post contains graphic gory disgusting details toward the end.

 I thought I would take a little time today to enlighten you all as to the fantastic woodland creatures that you can all meet if you come visit.  You know you all need an outdoor adventure, so COME ON!

Orbil

As any of you who are facebook or twitter followers know, I recently made friends with a darling Orb Weaver!  He spun new webs outside my front door every night.  He has now moved to the back door.  How do I know that he is the same one, you may ask... I just do!  He's special!  Here is a really crappy photo of him.


Jack and friend... I'm very aware that
he could probably live inside of Jack's beard.



Jack and I now have a new friend that moved in close to our house!  Want to meet him?  He doesn't have a name, and frankly, I haven't seen him except for the ONE time... but as far as I'm concerned, he's a buddy.

Releasing our new buddy in to the wild...
 that is, a bush in front of our house!

I believe I may have previously mentioned the squirrel family that we have living in our trees as well.  If not, we have several squirrels that live here.  Kaiah hates them because they tease her.  She'll chase them up the tree and they'll get to a branch, just barely above Kaiah's reach and will chatter at her.  I honestly think they are mocking her.

(I will also add that there are a variety of birds and bunnies and this guy that live here, but they aren't super news-worthy.)

Now, on to the real story.  Shortly after I discovered the Orb Weaver, I also discovered that there are two owls living in our pine tree.  I went outside with Kaiah one night and I heard this noise that I could only assume was the collaborative noise of 3 dying dogs.  Well, all of a sudden, I look up because I hear a rustling and an owl swooped out of the tree, right at my head!  As soon as it got across the street, I could hear it "who whoing" back and forth with the remaining owl in the tree.  I assumed since I heard the noise no longer that it was some weird mating noise or conversation the two were having before the dear friends parted ways.  This all happened about 2-3 weeks ago.

This is where the story really starts.  About a week ago, I started scolding Kaiah when we went outside because she wouldn't leave the eave extension alone.  Then, a few days ago I started smelling what can only be referred to as "the smell".  I told Jack that there was something that was clearly dead in the eave extension.  He told me he checked and that there was nothing there.  BOY was he WRONG.  Finally after two days of the stench increasing, I forced Jack to take the extension out and check even though he ASSURED me it was just "stagnant water".  As soon as he pulled it off he goes, "oh... there's something in there all right". 

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT WAS?!?!?

A DEAD RACCOON!!!  A completely mushified decomposing pile of maggots, teeth and a tiny striped piece of tail!  DISGUSTING!  Jack tried to convince me it wasn't a raccoon but I know raccoon tail when I see it.   Sick.  It was seriously mush! 

What does this have to do with the owls you ask?  I have decided that the noise that I heard the night of the owls was actually that raccoon trying to free itself from my eave spout and the sound alarmed the owl and made it fly across the street!  How horrible is that?  Maybe I could have saved the probably rabid little dude, had I known!  Sad!

Okay, that is all for my nasty nature stories.  Here's a cute picture of Kaiah in her new tie-dyed bandana I got her at FarMar this weekend to replace all of the grossness!

Such a pretty girl!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My little niece is so cute!!! Also, that story is sick.

Unknown said...

I wasn't sure if there was going to be a picture of what was left of the raccoon. It was like a horror movie, you don't want to see it but you peak through your hands because you have to. I think I'm relieved there wasn't one.

Unknown said...

Gross, right? No picture! I couldn't stand to be around it that long! Jack even tried to make me hold the garbage bag while he dumped it in... I attempted to, then dropped it and ran inside because I literally almost threw up INSIDE MY SHIRT! (Because I had my nose in my shirt, of course.)

Anonymous said...

Also, have I mentioned I hate those Praying Mantis things. They bite and it hurts, I think they eat people.

Unknown said...

I like them! They are so crazy looking!

 
Copyright © 2010 General Musings & Aberrant Thoughts. All rights reserved.
Blogger Template by