I'm Tellin' Ya'...

It's like Animal Planet around here lately...

The other morning, I was sitting here, just waking up and getting ready to enjoy my day when a sweetie little bird smacked into the large picture window that dominates one wall of my living room...

I grew up in a house with huge front windows, and that was a sound I heard quite often, but it still makes me cringe. So, I peeked out there, and there it was, on it's back with it's little feet all curled up...panting. Oh no. So, I walked away, thinking that at some point, I was going to need to get the shovel and give it a right decent burial in the garbage can.

Even though it freaks me out.
Why does the thought of a dead bird freak me out?

I mean, my sister used to save them for their plumage in her freezer for goodness sake.

So, the cat was outside (oh yes, you can only guess what's coming next) She proceeded to pick up panting/assumed dying bird in her mouth and bring it right into the house. Where it chirped and hopped around the floor...picture if you will, at this point, me jumping around screaming my head off at the cat (even though I read, you're not supposed to do that, cause' it's just their way of contributing to the house...but, I defy you to keep calm when presented with the thought of watching your cat eat a live bird and strew the feathers around you house or usually what happens is the bird is fine and then you have a panicked bird flying around an overstimulated cat chasing it combined with a super freaked out Sadira screaming her head off while waving a towel around...besides, we've already had the discussion of her contribution, and she's supposed to be cleaning) So, I ran into the bathroom and grabbed a towel to throw over the bird and carry it outside...that way I won't crush it, or it won't peck me...and watched it fly away.

So, I saved it.
I saved it's little bird life.
And, this was all before 10 am.

And yesterday morning when I was on the phone with Rich, I heard some weird chirping/chitting noises and peeked outside to see the cat staring intently at the drainpipe. I was half talking on the phone, and half trying to figure out what the heck was going on, when all of a sudden, whatever was up there fell down a little bit, scaring both the cat and I...One of us shrieking into the phone probably causing temporary hearing loss to the person on the other end and the other getting a rather large and puffy tail...all while running around in a total panic trying not to trip over one another...

(Meena says she's sorry for shrieking at you Rich)

So, I haul the cat inside so that whatever it was that was up there would hopefully find its way out. It chirped and squawked for a long time.

Perfect.
It's stuck.

So, I went out and hit the drainpipe a couple of times and listened to it scrabble about (I was hoping to scare it out, or at least shut it up for a minute)...while having horrible visions of whatever it was, dying and rotting away, only to show it's decayed little body during the monsoon season, as it shoots out of the drainpipe (due, of course, to the fact that there will be a large pile-up of leaves and sticks and water applying amazing amounts of force on it's dead carcass)

Oh joy.
What a special lawn ornament that will be.

After a while though, I didn't hear any more little sounds coming out of the pipe...and as I was leaving for work, I heard a familiar squeak...coming from the birdbath...the culprit? A little chipmunk. Yay...I saved a chipmunk life, I am so thankful that the cat didn't drag that into the house...

And all of this before 10am!

You know, It's times like these when I wish I had someone else living here to deal with all of this, even though I know I'm perfectly capable of dealing with it myself. It just freaks me out. Like the time I ran downstairs to the kitchen to retrieve a butcher knife shortly after we moved to AZ and my mom was single, so she could kill a rather large centipede (shudder) that was crawling around on the ceiling of her bathroom. Now, coming from CA we did not know that you do not under any circumstances cut things in half.

you don't.
you just don't.

Not if you don't want one half landing in your hair...and the other half landing on the floor and running away...never. to. be. seen. again...but, there is something comforting about a resounding round of girlie screaming (even if one of them may be a cat) that you don't get when you have a male around (unless you count the sound my ex used to make when he found a roach) and you're forced to fill a ceiling light fixture with liquid poison and watch a centipede drown as the poison slowly drips onto your sister's bed (shudder...and I wonder why I hate centipedes?)

And, I thought at the time my mother was so brave, but she said in a quite matter of fact voice,

"...it's the centipede or you girls!"
and you know,
after all that?

The stinging wasn't half bad after a few days.

And yes, I already used that one picture of Meena, but I just love it so...
And no, the lizard has nothing to do with what's going on...but it is wildlife, right?
And, it was a total accident my sister got stung by that centipede...but ma drowned it in the end!

Have a good weekend!