The growing list includes: deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, possum, raccoons, birds of every type, fox, coyote, snakes, frogs, turtles, mice and bats. We've had the pleasure of a few get inside our house and a lot more make their homes right in our yard.
The first wildlife that attempted to get too close for comfort was the carnivorous rabbit. It was February 2007 and Addie had just been born. It was so cold, like most days zero degrees and negative with the windchill. We have this egress window in the basement so that we'd have an exit in an emergency. There is a metal grate on top covered with a plastic dome. The dome blows off all the time with the wind. It must have blown off because two (skinny) rabbits managed to go through the bars in the grate and landed in the bottom of the window well. Of course, I knew nothing of this because I had a newborn baby.
But when we had playgroup in the basement it didn't take long for the 2 year old kids to look into the window and they kept yelling "bunny." When I went over to the window I was shocked to find a live bunny shivering in the snow and then I noticed how bloody it was and I saw the dead one frozen on the ground. And it didn't take long before I figured out how the bunny was staying alive, it had turned herbivore to carnivore and had to eat its mate.
I headed over to the neighbors to get their live trap and we put whatever I had to eat in there, it consisted of Zingerman's cake and some carrots and brussel sprouts. Brian helped me lower the trap tied to a rope into the window well. We left it alone for a while and kept running down the basement to see if it'd made its way into the trap. At some point the rabbit did and so we bundled up and went back outside and pulled up the trap. The rabbit was very calm and seemed very content with the coffee cake and veggies. I wrapped the trap in towels, figuring it might be nice to warm the rabbit up before we let him loose. Brian put him in the trunk of the car and drove him out of the neighborhood, just in case by memory it decided to return.
We have a lot of bird feeders and so the cats enjoy watching all the birds that we attract. We also attract a lot of other animals that feed on the feeders such as raccoon, woodchucks, and deer. Its kind of spooky to see large deer right up against your bay window while eating out of a bird feeder. They don't limit themselves to nighttime either, we see them in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. One evening in the winter I was walking to a neighbors and the deer ran by so fast I didn't stop and felt the rush as they flew by right in front of me, I almost got hit they were so close!
The woodchucks live under our deck and although its probably not a good idea that they burrow so close to our house we do enjoy watching her stroll around our yard. She has babies every year and its interesting to watch them too, the kids love it. One year we had the climbing woodchuck and it used to climb the tree by the deck and sleep there, very odd!
This year we had another rabbit return, but this time they didn't settle for the egress window. It was Saturday night, I had a friend over and we were sitting in my basement at the scrapbooking table. I got up to go upstairs for something and I got a few steps toward the staircase when she shouted a mouse, no a rat, oh my god, its a rabbit, it just fell from your ceiling. I looked at her and almost didn't believe her but she was so shocked it was real. We had no idea where the thing that we thought was a rabbit went.
I went upstairs to get Brian and a lot of towels. I also went next door to get the live trap again, not knowing what kind of night we were in for. Back downstairs we narrowed it down to one area and I had my friend and Brian stand guard with towels and a baby gate while I held a towel and looked around the storage area for the animal. I found a tiny brown baby rabbit huddled next to a box. It was not moving so I thought it had died falling from the ceiling. I went to pick it up and it leaped out, hitting my leg and went running, I screamed and then everyone else screamed.
Attempt number two to catch the baby rabbit, still armed with my towel I went closer to the wine rack and saw it huddled again but this time I was ready for it to leap and I threw the towel down around it and scooped it up into a bucket. We all headed upstairs fast and outside to release the rabbit. I tried to snap a photo but that rabbit ran so fast into the woods. Brian is convinced it became hawk food but I want to think it was fine and we saved yet another rabbit!
Just in case you were wondering, we figured out that the rabbit came in through the garage and went under the wall into the insulation and burrowed its way in and then when the insulation ended it basically fell from the basement ceiling. Brian is going to try to not leave the garage door open all day when doing yard work!
We've had other animals in our garage, its seems to be popular. We had a very fast snake, I couldn't get that thing to leave, I tried everything I could and finally did manage to get it onto the driveway. Kept the kids very entertained that day. We also had a giant bullfrog that was another impossible one to get out, it kept finding toys to hid underneath. I had to haul out every riding toy and sports equipment (which if you haven't seen we have a LOT) to shoosh it out of the garage. Then Braden chased it into the landscaping and it did the weirdest thing, it looked like it was swimming but it actually burrowed itself underneath the mulch and dirt. I had Braden go inside so the poor thing would stop being tortured!
We had a mouse in our basement (who hasn't) but that mouse didn't last but a few hours before Barney cat took care of it and left it for me as a present to find next to my bed in the morning.
The best and most recent siting was the two fox chasing each other in the culdesac. It was around 11pm at night and Brian looked out our bedroom window before going to bed. He said there was something odd in the culdesac. I got out of bed to look and we were shocked to see that in the street light it was two fox racing around and playing. We had heard odd noises the night before and now know the culprit.
Although I've yet to see them, I hear coyotes howling most nights and neighbors have looked out to see them wandering our backyards. Very glad that our cats stay indoors!
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