Those of you that know where we live, know that it’s not out in the middle of nowhere anywhere near nature of any sort. Yet, we still manage to attract some very odd creatures to our house.
The first couple of pictures here are of our latest praying mantis invasion. Think about the last time you saw a praying mantis. Been a while, huh? I’d say other than inside our house, it’s been years since I’ve seen one. For some reason, though, over the past 9 years living here, we’ve had them show up pretty consistently. We caught a baby one (less than a cm long) in our basement several years ago. We put it in a critter keeper and named him “Zorak” (you have seen Cartoon Planet with Space Ghost, right?). We did lots of research and took very good care of him. Then we learned the bigger he got, the bigger his prey needed to be. Did you know those things will eat baby mice as adults? Whatever! I was NOT going to be feeding him baby rodents! So we set him free. Not too much time went by before we met his Mamma! Through our research, we knew it was a female by her wing structure. She was HUGE! I’d say 6-7 inches at least. She just flew into our living room (we ducked because we thought it was a bat or something) and landed on the back of the couch and looked at us as if asking where we put her baby. She hung out long enough for us to go retrieve the video camera (if I can dig up the footage, I’ll post that too). After our amazement and interest had faded, we took her outside. Hopefully she found Zorak and they had a sweet reunion. We have seen several other praying mantises over the years. That’s got to be symbolic for something, right? If anyone has an answer for that, let me know. Really. I’m intrigued.
The next pic is just of a really cool spider. Much like you, I’m sure, we have spiders. We just have big pretty spiders. We don’t kill them unless they are imposing. Because “Best’s don’t kill things”. One year, our family motto allowed to spiders to overrun the place and pest control was called. However, mostly we just enjoy our beautiful 8 legged friends and shoot pictures of them if they are exceptionally pretty. This on had built an amazing web between the garbage can outside and our porch. We appreciate hard work so we try not to disturb them, if we can avoid doing so.
Now, the next couple of pictures are of a new type of creature to our house. We actually have a woodpecker that has pecked a perfect hole in the column of our front porch. He diligently worked on that thing for weeks until it was just right. He would not be detoured either! We tried scaring him off. I mean, he was destroying our property. However, like I said, we appreciate hard work, so we just decided to let him move in. As far as I can tell, the construction phase of his project is over, so it’s all quiet once again.
The last couple of shots are of what we believe is a baby owl. This critter showed up and slept in the corner of our porch at night for several nights. At first we stepped lightly as to not disturb it, but soon realized we were not on his radar at all. We came out with flashlights and cameras, pointed and conversed and he slept away. Then one night he just didn’t come back. If anyone has any better idea as to exactly what this animal is, let us know. We are just assuming baby owl. We’re not sure. It is definitely a bird of some sort.
But probably the most extraordinary animal we’ve had is a really strange story about the Power of Elliot. Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of him, but the story speaks for itself I think.
One day, Elliot and I were riding in the car having car ride conversation 3 year old style (he was 3 at the time). Elliot stated that he wanted a deer for a pet. I simply explained to him all the reasons that was a really bad idea. Like, that we don’t have any trees or a creek in our back yard. Or that a deer would be lonely in our yard with the privacy fence. Of course, he didn’t care about those things at all. He emphatically stated over and over again that he was getting a deer for a pet. So, instead of arguing with 3 year old logic, I simply rolled over and said, “Sure, if you catch a deer, you can have it.” What are the chances of that, right?
Well, later that night, let’s say 2 AM (yes, we’re nocturnal around here), Devin and I were hanging out on the porch. Most of you are familiar with the Southern States barn and gravel parking lot view we have backed up by the railroad tracks just a few yards away. Not conducive to any sort of wildlife other than the occasional skunk. I notice Devin point his finger to the front left of me so I followed the signal to see a big buck standing in the gravel lot just staring at us as if to say, “You called?”. Devin and I just froze and stared into the eyes of this beautiful deer as it stared right back at us for what seemed like and eternity. Really, it was probably just a minute or two, but it was so strange. Mostly because I had just finished telling Devin about Elliot deciding on a deer for a pet. And strange because, WHERE DID HE COME FROM? The first words spoken were mine saying, “If that thing jumps the fence, I’m letting Elliot keep him!”.
Eventually, the buck just calmly turned around and walked into the distance. We did tell Elliot the next day that his deer came for a visit, but decided to not be anyone’s pet.
