Guess what showed up on my front porch today!

[Nagel]

Ok, Now I mow the lawn this morning, do all the weed trimming, start some other work and when I pass my front porch this afternoon, GUESS WHAT WAS THERE!

No, its not a shipment of goodies from one of the MO places. Instead, I have a Snapping Turtle with a shell that was at least 12" across. Now, this might be ok, IF my porch was on the ground. But this guy had to climb up 3 x 8" steps to get there. And the best part is that my porch is only 4'X6'. What in gods name was it doing on my porch? It was placed like it was just about ready to knock on my door. I took a few pics of it and I will post them later.

Anybody else have any wierd creatures come knocking on their front door lately?

BTW, glad it was my front porch, and not the two ponds in my backyard with my koi in them. That would not have been a fun ordeal to try and get him out.

[billsreef]

Well not exactly at the front door, but...one fine sunny afternoon as I'm doing some yard work there was bunch of white fluffy snowy looking stuff dropping from the sky. The temp was well into the 70's now :puzzled: So after looking around, I step back and look up in the direction this stuff is comming from and see...a hawk perched on my roof eating a bird for lunch :D

And to think some people wonder why I don't move closer to "civilization" ;)

[Nagel]

Hey, I live living in the 'boonies!

Just think, how many people can roll over in bed in the morning and open your eyes to see a deer in the back yard munching on some greens.

Or how bout a bear ripping down birdfeeders, then eating all the seeds from it like it was a gian ice-cream cone..

I'd take my chances with the bear in the boonies then a burgular in the more "civilized" areas.

hehe, some bonuses for living in the country I guess....

[billsreef]

I don't have the bear on eastern Long Island, but we do have plenty of deer :D

[Nanook]

Well I live in the city, BUT, my wife and I were having a beer outside, enjoying the weather, when I thought I saw a RAT! I dismissed it, thinking it must be a small squirrel, it was under her car about 20-30 yards away. Well, I continued smoking my cigar and drinking my beer, when I saw it and thought, that is a RAT! My wife said "Just leave it alone". I couldn't do that and began to try to catch it. I had her go downstairs for my trout net to help apprehend the rat. Oh, this is a Fancy Rat, obviously someones escaped pet.

We chased it around the house, through the bushes and woodpile and finally caught it and lost it several times, destroyed my netting in the trout net. I carried it downstairs and put it in the 10g, no then the 20g, no, not high enough, then the 29g. My wife got bit by it when she put her hand on its back to pet it, poor rat was terrified.

I asked all the neighbors if they lost a pet rat, no one claimed to have lost it. It looks like a cat or something chewed on its tail...Tonight, after deciding that we couldn't just let it go or give it to the humane society, we spent $104 for the Ritz chinchilla/rat cage, complete with exercise wheel and spill-proof food containers. Of course we needed the proper deodorized substrate and nutritious rat food, not to mention the exercise ball...just open lid and drop rat in, then put lid on and watch rat run :D

So now we have a pet rat named Speedy, ;)

Nanook

[Agu]

We've seen fox, deer, and a flock of wild turkeys in our yard, and we live in a residential area of a small town. In a small town no home is very far from the country :).

Agu

[Kat]

Just a few of the many wierd things that have happened to me:

A (very) short while ago: My husband and I were walking home, and were feeling quite happy. It'd been a great day. Then, smack, a dead pigeon lands on the ground in front of me, a few drops of blood spattering out of it. I couldn't quite help but think it was a sign of some sort, and not a good one, but who knows... A few days later we figured out what happened: there is a falcon nesting in the area (yes, right in the heart of the city, we saw it!) and apparently the falcons find the pigeons easy hunting - they swoop down and knock them dead with one powerful whack from their talons.

When I was living up north, I was by myself in the house when I heard scuffling noises downstairs. Doing the stupidest thing possible, I went to investigate. It turns out someone had left a lower-level window open, an almost purely white fox had crept in through the open window and had forgotten its way out while investigating the basement. I opened the basement door after admiring it for a few moments, and it shot past me like greased lightning.

Also, when up north, I was heading outside in the early morning for some coffee. It was about -15C, and a heavy ice fog was obscuring everything. Almost to the store, I heard a noise and was displeased to see a mother moose with her calf. Knowing how protective these animals are of their young (and you think bears are bad!), I skeedaddled between two dumpsters in the parking lot of the nearby mall, only to be trapped there for over a half hour while the moose snorted around me and tried to find a way to get at me. Definitely unpleasant.

I have been attacked by a black bear, but that's too long a story... I have also been attacked by squirrels - now stop laughing, it's true, and it's amazing the amount of damage one of those furry little tree rats can do. I was far more hurt by the squirrel then I was by the bear! Another millimetre to the side, and that dang squirrel would've bit right through the tendon in one of my fingers. Not fun experiences!

Once I also found an endangered Mexican tortoise in the parking lot of a gas station. How it got there, I don't know, but at least it enjoyed the rest of its natural life at the reptile refuge.

There's more, but it just gets more bizzare from there.

[signu459]

Nothing cool at my house....... but my parent have plenty.

Almost every day in late summer(when I lived there) I would see deer eating apple from our apple tree.

We had a flock of about 15 turkeys that seemed to showed up most evenings around dusk.

Then there is the occasional cow that escapes from the farm across the road

But the coolest thing was a linx (lynx?)I saw it clear as day about 20 feet out side our back window. It stood around 20 inches tall with the tufted ears and bobed tail. No way this sucker was a domestic cats. We found out the next day that the local zoo was missing their linx and several people around the area were missing their dogs. i don't think they ever caught it.

now about the those snapping turtles- They are mean suckas!! My cycling club put on a 100 mile ride every year. Last year I was in charge of driving the route and making sure the roads were clear and no one was in trouble. I mostly did a lot of sweeping of gravel, but I came across a large snapper, at least 15 inches that was smack in the middle of the road. So I decided for both the turtles and cyclst heath I would try to move of off the road. Well the turtle was not terribly interested in that. I tried pushing him with a stick, that didn't work then I thought I would just pick it up. Nope really bad idea! Those things are very quick and they call them snappers for a reason. I nearly lost a finger or two. So I found a large stick, it was around 3/4" in dia. I thought i would let him grab onto the stick and I would drag it off the road. Nope, bit right through the stick. That is when i realized that this thing meant business. I did get it off the road finnaly usinf two sticks and pushng it along.

[Edited by signu459 on 05-30-2001 at 05:40 PM]

[Sea Dragon]

You have the strangest (bad) luck there Kat! Bet nature shows bore you.

Biggest snapping turtle I've seen was about 2 feet across. It was sunning on a country road folks were just driving around it. Snappers aren't agressive in the water but get real mean on land. They just don't feel comfortable out of the water I guess.

We had a mink in our yard last year. They are speedy little critters.

[ChrisIsBored]

Guess what showed up at my door today!

No not a turtle or a bear or a deer. FedEx!

And what did they bring? Well, yesterday it was 3 out of 8 boxes of my SD sand from reefland. Today it was 4 out of 8 boxes. Tomorrow i'm betting i'll get number 8.

Conclusion, FedEx sucks.