WILDlife...

Living in a developed neighborhood for almost 10 years, it amazes me that we still see so much wildlife. I don't remember seeing this much growing up but our city is closer to the foothills. I've had a little fascination with hawks ever since we lived 3 hours away and traveled on a boring freeway in the middle of nowhere. I'd see hawks sitting on fenceposts along the road and they looked huge. We always see them circling above with a couple of angry crows at their heels...talons. We've had a couple of attacks on pigeons and doves and even remember seeing one on our grass eating it's kill. Even experienced a "swoop down" to take a look at our chihuahua puppy.

This one was seen on top of my neighbor's roof. Our schoolroom window faces this roof so imagine my delight to see this bird of prey so close. In this picture he spotted me taking a picture and immediately carried off his kill (poor pigeon or dove r.i.p.)
Last Saturday our neighbors directly behind us were having a good, loud time in their backyard at 2:00 in the morning. (I must say the first time they were out this late) It woke us up and when they started yelling "opossum" {why does it start with an 'o' when nobody pronounces it that way?}. Then came the LOUD whack from the shovel and the cracking sound from our fence. It was a bit shocking and I cringed from the force. Both Rod and I looked at each other with open mouths, decided not to say anything and finally fell asleep when they called it a night 45 mins later.

Sadly, the next morning there was a dead opossum near the fence in our yard. I got the girls upstairs to prepare for Mass while Rod took care of man duties before the girls or dogs got wind of the "sitch." Unfortunately the "playing opossum" thing is true and it was maimed but not dead. Ugh, Rod nor especially I, did not want to hit that poor thing over the head. So what should we humanely do? - suffocate it with a black plastic bag and put it in the garbage.

If you were thinking bad idea, you'd be right. After returning from Mass the man of the house took a peak in the garbage to find a hissing opossum who had chewed through the bag. Tough opossum, I feel bad not honoring his will to live but it would not be long for him. He had to spend 3 more days in that garbage with the lid securely held down. I think he may have died. So who was more humane?... the brave, forceful, partying neighbors or the two chickens who opted for suffocation, imprisonment and starvation?

Sorry, such a lovely return post. I'm hoping, right along with you, that they get better. I'm back to all the vicious wildlife around here. They better hope they're never at our mercy because it may be a slow, grueling death because we choose to be humane to animals. {oh the irony}