Chipmunks, Bunnies, Spiders and Snakes

While I know there are many small animals around here, we do not see many due to the hawks and eagles.  Any small animals that we see, I am sure that the large birds see as well.  (Mice are the exception; we are plagued by mice.) But this year is different and I do not know if this is good or what.

It started with a chipmunk.  This is the first year that we have seen one and it is a brazen little thing, sitting on our root cellar structure and looking into our laundry room/office window.  Drives the cats crazy.  We put out food scraps - it loves fruit.

Then, bunnies started hopping around the back yard, eating the 'rabbit ears' grass that grows there.  (I have no idea what kind of weed or grass it is, but my mother called it 'rabbit ears' because it looks like that.)  These bunnies have very little fear (like the dust bunnies in the house!) - we can walk within 4 feet of them before they hop away.  We have one that sits on our car parking pad and dares you to move your car closer.  I have heard my husband honking his horn and waiting to park his car because the bunny is there.  This bunny joins a select group of animals with attitude that we have up here.  Deer, turkeys, bear and now bunnies stand in the road or whatever and I can swear they have the look of "What, I should move for you?"

I do not notice many hawks or eagles or other birds of prey this year.  This explains the small creatures, I guess.  Maybe it is too warm and the birds went farther north.  I notice we have more song birds this year as well.  Nice to be serenaded at sunset.

Every year we do get a lot of spiders, living in the woods as we do.  But this year is ridiculous.  I find myself turning on lights and checking the ceiling for nests and webs, especially in the garage.  Large webs and spiders appear overnight outside next to the house.  Impressive webs, but yuck!  I know, they keep the gnat and fly populations down, but it follows there are a lot of gnats and flies in order to attract this many spiders.  Either way, bug repellent and constant clearing of webs outside are our ways of coping.

And now, snakes.  There are snakes up here, outside, in the woods, near water, etc...but - not in the bedroom, right?  Our little Fancy has caught three snakes so far in our bedroom!  Little, non-poisonous, but they are snakes and creepy nonetheless.  My husband flushed one, I flushed one, and the other night he went running by me to go the back door to throw out another one.  Might not have thought anything of his running by, telling me to ignore him, if he had not dropped the stupid thing in the middle of the living room!  I screamed, and he asked me why the scream.  Hey, I'm a girl - girls do that.