Lions and Tigers and Bears … Oh My!
Ok, so it’s not really about Lions, Tigers and Bears, it’s more about Crickets, Bunnies, and Mice, but using a line from the Wizard of OZ should get me a couple of bonus points with my wife, and who couldn’t use the extra points? Besides that, Crickets and Bunnies doesn't sound near as exciting as Lions and Tigers.
Let’s start with the cricket. Cory owns a couple of Bearded Lizards which he keeps in his room, once a week he will go out and purchase a few dozen crickets to feed to them. This week he let one get away from him, and the little bugger has made its way to the basement, which just happens to be where I sleep. I sleep in the basement because I have a hard time falling asleep, and little noises like kids coughing (or crickets chirping) tend to keep me awake. So needless to say there have been a couple of nights where my sleep has been limited. I would love to catch him and tie his legs together so that he can’t keep making that awful chirping noise, but alas he has outsmarted me on every attempt I have made so far.
This weekend I went to the cottage with my father. We normally use the long weekend as the opening weekend but Dad was concerned that there would be plumbing problems due to pipes freezing through the winter. He wanted to make sure that if there were any problems we got the fixed before everyone got there on the long weekend. Once again he was right; there were a couple of places in which the pipes did in fact split. After a couple hours of looking for and patching leaks we finally got the water on.
Later that evening as we are drinking a couple of beers and barbequing some steaks to celebrate a job well done, nature calls. Since we are at the cottage and it was nature that was calling I decided to go visit my favorite tree to answer her. As I am doing my thing, I start to hear this squealing coming from a pile of downed branches, not too far away. At first I thought maybe it was a baby bird that had fallen out of its’ nest. I looked up but I didn’t see any nests for a bird to fall from. It’s probably too early in the season for baby birds anyway, but I was too intent on listening to the squeals to think logically. I finished what I was doing and went off to investigate; I was shocked by what I had found.
There was a baby rabbit; he was just a tiny fellow, probably only 4 or 5 inches long. That in itself is not so shocking, what I couldn’t believe was what he was screaming about. Attached to his hind leg was a mouse. Now as small as the rabbit was, the mouse was still a lot smaller, it was only about the size of the rabbit’s foot. I have no idea why a mouse would pick a fight with something so much larger than itself but there he was, and believe it or not he was winning. My first thought is where’s my camera, oh yeah its out front by the barbeque. Who would have thought I would need it to answer a call from nature? I have seen my share of nature shows, and I know they all say the same thing, observe nature, but don’t interfere. So the first thing I do is get a stick and interfere. A quick tap on the mouse with the stick and he let go. I then went back out front to get my camera and came back to see if there was any evidence of the fierce battle I had just witnessed. The mouse had disappeared but the Rabbit was still there. I figure he hadn’t had quite enough trauma for one day so I got right down on the ground there with him and started taking his picture. Doesn't he look happy about recieving all this attention?
Let’s start with the cricket. Cory owns a couple of Bearded Lizards which he keeps in his room, once a week he will go out and purchase a few dozen crickets to feed to them. This week he let one get away from him, and the little bugger has made its way to the basement, which just happens to be where I sleep. I sleep in the basement because I have a hard time falling asleep, and little noises like kids coughing (or crickets chirping) tend to keep me awake. So needless to say there have been a couple of nights where my sleep has been limited. I would love to catch him and tie his legs together so that he can’t keep making that awful chirping noise, but alas he has outsmarted me on every attempt I have made so far.
This weekend I went to the cottage with my father. We normally use the long weekend as the opening weekend but Dad was concerned that there would be plumbing problems due to pipes freezing through the winter. He wanted to make sure that if there were any problems we got the fixed before everyone got there on the long weekend. Once again he was right; there were a couple of places in which the pipes did in fact split. After a couple hours of looking for and patching leaks we finally got the water on.
Later that evening as we are drinking a couple of beers and barbequing some steaks to celebrate a job well done, nature calls. Since we are at the cottage and it was nature that was calling I decided to go visit my favorite tree to answer her. As I am doing my thing, I start to hear this squealing coming from a pile of downed branches, not too far away. At first I thought maybe it was a baby bird that had fallen out of its’ nest. I looked up but I didn’t see any nests for a bird to fall from. It’s probably too early in the season for baby birds anyway, but I was too intent on listening to the squeals to think logically. I finished what I was doing and went off to investigate; I was shocked by what I had found.
There was a baby rabbit; he was just a tiny fellow, probably only 4 or 5 inches long. That in itself is not so shocking, what I couldn’t believe was what he was screaming about. Attached to his hind leg was a mouse. Now as small as the rabbit was, the mouse was still a lot smaller, it was only about the size of the rabbit’s foot. I have no idea why a mouse would pick a fight with something so much larger than itself but there he was, and believe it or not he was winning. My first thought is where’s my camera, oh yeah its out front by the barbeque. Who would have thought I would need it to answer a call from nature? I have seen my share of nature shows, and I know they all say the same thing, observe nature, but don’t interfere. So the first thing I do is get a stick and interfere. A quick tap on the mouse with the stick and he let go. I then went back out front to get my camera and came back to see if there was any evidence of the fierce battle I had just witnessed. The mouse had disappeared but the Rabbit was still there. I figure he hadn’t had quite enough trauma for one day so I got right down on the ground there with him and started taking his picture. Doesn't he look happy about recieving all this attention?
posted by The Dancing Bear at 12:16 PM
1 Comments:
Mouse VS Rabbit, Tonight on Fox. I can honestly say that's the first time I've ever heard of a mouse trying to get a snack from a rabbit's foot. Great shot of the baby rabbit BTW...
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