Bless their hearts.
I know they are acting out of love, but I still never fail to wince when my cat (and the various cats I’ve had through the years) bring me ‘gifts’.
Some experts speculate that cats bring gifts because they think we are terrible hunters and never see us with prey in our mouths.
I’ve received two birds, a handful of mice, and even a vole.
And if I’m not attentive enough, the gifts are brought inside before I realize what’s happening.
My cats have always been strays and rescues, accustomed to the outdoors.
While I was able to train them to stay in the yard and only be out during daylight, they still nabbed the occasional animal that entered their domain.
As much as we like to think of our home as our castle, we forget that we still share space with critters.
I feel like an Airbnb with all these unscheduled and sometimes messy guests.
In March of 2023, I went to war.
The days were mild so the patio door was open.
Stink bugs invaded, so many that there was a written tally – 31 killed on one weekend and more than 50 within the week.
Baby bunnies often trip security lights as they chomp on plants in my Langley City yard, and when I shooed a raccoon out of the backyard two nights in a row – because it wouldn’t stop coming to the window to pester my cat – I awoke one morning to find a large dookie on my lawn.
That felt personal.
I’ve stumbled upon roiling nests of baby spiders that are at once fascinating and make my skin crawl, and I’ve had to watch not to step on slugs, concerned about slipping on slime.
Most weeding sessions in the flowerbeds lead to the sighting of their cousin, snails with their beautifully decorated portable housing, and the animals that have torn up parts of the lawn as they go after the chafer beetle grubs.
The joke’s on you, nature.
My lawn is so full of moss that the dug-up sections flop back into place like a bad toupee.
Green is green, right?
Steller’s jays announce their arrival, giving the impression of being the Karens of the bird world, while hummingbirds visit, announcing their presence with the soft whir of their flight.
Lest all you kiddies who read newspapers, and more specifically opinion columns, think that watching nature is boring, nature ain’t shy.
I had a front row seat to XXX content out my window, replete with snarls and squeals.
Failing to take into account the slope of the roof, two juvenile raccoons made an ill-considered decision to… ahem, procreate, on my shed.
cat gifts, Langley City yard, stink bug invasion, raccoon visits, bunnies security lights, lawn moss recovery, wildlife surprises