Look What My Son Caught for Me

He was so frakkin proud.

I knew something was up when I got out of the shower and instead of being in his customary spot on the rug just outside the tub, he was laying underneath the toilet.

Luckily, I am a habitual looker-down-before-I-step kind of person, so I managed to spot the "gift" before stepping on it (let me just say "eeeeeewwwww").

You guessed right.

My furry, four-legged "son" caught a mouse sometime between my alarm going off (where he was curled up in the nook of my bent legs) and me getting out of the shower last Friday morning.

And he's declawed!

This is the 2nd animal he's caught in the house. The first time he caught a little black shrew. We think it was him but really can't be sure since we do have two hunters in the house (Alabama Mae caught a shrew outside during a Father's Day BBQ and promptly brought it to my dad as a present).

This one I could be sure was his, just because of his odd behavior. When I stepped out of the shower, he looked at me, then at the mouse, and then back at me as if to say "Momma! Aren't you going to praise me?"

Of course I couldn't deal with the dead critter just then...I was still naked for cryin' out loud!

So I used some toilet paper to move it away from immediate danger of being stepped on in our 1' square bathroom and proceeded to get to the point where I was dressed enough to toss the carcass outside.

I considered flushing it, but thought it would be a bad idea. Gizmo is an extremely smart kitten, and he would try to "rescue" his prize if he saw me put it in the toilet.

But when it came time to dispose of the corpse, IT WAS GONE!!

OMIGOD. Not good.

Now I had to find this damn thing because there's no way I'm letting a potential mini-mouse zombie reanimate within the confines of my home.

I checked the usual spots...his food & water dish, his little hidey-hole cat castle, the spare bed...

Nada.

But then I remembered one truly important fact about my son....he's a HUGE daddy's boy, so I knew that he would have to show off his hunting skills to his father upstairs.

Nevermind that the Big B is sleeping away, Gizmo is a quiet understated kind of kitty but he would wait patiently until B acknowledged his feat.

And that's right where I found him and the mouse, hanging out on the carpet upstairs, waiting patiently for the accolades that are justly due him.

 Oh he looks so very proud, doesn't he?

Okay so you can barely see the thing...but it was definitely a live mouse at one point!

I guess all that practice with the fake mousies last night really gave Gizmo an edge this morning when it came time for the real thing.

My son, the mighty fluffy hunter.


*I tried to delay-post this 3 FRAKKIN times...Blogger hates me, because it's now a week later than I meant to post it. *sigh*

Tragedy Averted!

Last week I made my usual late afternoon call to the Big B and received some bad news.

"I think Ghost Face Killah might be dead."

"What?!?"

"I saw a white squirrel in the road on my way home today, just south of our house."

"Oh no! What about Blondie? What will she do?"

"I hope it's not him but I haven't seen either of them yet today."

As crazy as it seems, we've become attached to Blondie and Ghost Face Killah. We don't feed them (unless tossing old hamburger buns in the backyard is considered feeding them), and generally our interactions are limited to us trying futilely to get a decent picture of Blondie. Nontheless, we are prideful of our mutant squirrel couple and want them to do well.

We anxiously kept an eye out for both of them over the next few days. We saw an albino squirrel but were unable to determine if it was Ghost Face or not. Typically we identify him by his proximity to Blondie but she was no where in sight.

Sunday, Father's Day, I'm snoozing away in bed when B's alarm goes off, waking him up early so he can go discgolf with his father. He gives the customary kiss goodbye and I was already on my way back to visit the Sandman when I hear him clomping up the steps in that heavy-footed way he has.

"I just saw Ghost Face in the front yard! He's alive!"

I think I mumbled something appropriately excited and happy, but I have never claimed to be a morning person and I remember thinking, "He came all the way back up here & woke me up just to tell me a squirrel's still alive?"

Later, however, I was able to appreciate just how much these squirrels mean to us, if the Big B made a special trip just to tell me he was alive.

Earlier this week he spotted them both, doing their usual squirrel-y things and the Big B's grin was wide and bursting with happiness.

Chitter away, mutant Blondie and Ghost Face Killah. We know you don't listen to us (as evidenced by Blondie's refusal to stay away from the street no matter how much B implored and begged you) but we hope you know that at least two humans care for you.

A Tail of Two Lovers--Blondie and Ghost Face Killa

For living in a suburb very close to Minneapolis, we have a lot of animals in our neighborhood who periodically appear in our yard.


We've seen all the usual critters, of course--the squirrels, the rabbits, the cardinals, the robins, the chickadees, the blue jays and various little sparrows, murders of crows and little hordes of blackbirds.

Of course, you already know we have raccoons running around as well *humph*

We're also blessed annually each spring with a mallard duck couple who like to stop over on their migration path and use our yard as a safe spot. We used to have a little pond in the backyard that they would claim as their own, but as the pump for it broke a few years ago the pond was more scum than water and we filled it in. I was happy to see that the mallard couple returned anyways--hopefully they will again!

Then this spring while the Big B was home recovering from surgery, he spotted a wild turkey hanging out in our yard.

We've also seen some type of hawk chilling on the light-posts of the nearby freeway, looking for unlucky prey.

Despite all my poking of fun at my husband's lack of knowledge of flora and fauna, he appreciates the wildlife as much as I do, and we enjoy pointing out the various creatures that inhabit or visit our demense.

Our favorite critters by far, however, are the ones we've named.

It all started one day when the Big B told me we had a blonde squirrel hanging out around our house. I scoffed, immediately suspicious of his ability to discern the difference between a grey squirrel and a red one.

"Are you sure it's not just a red squirrel?" I asked, ready to dismiss his claim.

"Yeah honey, I know the difference between a red squirrel and a grey one," he assures me. "This one is the same size as a grey squirrel but it's definitely blonde."

I should note that our squirrel neighbors have a few albinos in their midst. I've seen albinos before on the U of M campus along with the black squirrels that live there but was happy to note we had a couple that seemed to like our yard as a hang-out spot.

The Big B also assured me that the blonde squirrel was definitely NOT an albino either.

Later, the Big B spotted "Blondie" and called me over to the window, where I had to concede that he was right--this was definitely not a grey or albino squirrel, but some weird mutation of blonde.

Do squirrels use L'Oreal box hair-dye? I wonder.

However Blondie came to be, he's been adopted by our household. Since we named one of the little rodents, it didn't seem fair that the others were left out. It's almost a tradition now, since we named the tree we planted last year "Treena" (I wanted to name her Fred but the Big B won out on that by default) and I regularily name my cars.

Why not squirrels?

So now joining Blondie are the small albinos Ghost Face Killa and Whitey and a huge fat grey squirrel I named the Don.

The Big B was excited to discover that Blondie and Ghost Face Killa (distinguishable from Whitey by his smaller size) were nesting in the birch tree in our backyard. I was happy to see that Blondie had found a mate, despite his odd coloring. I was a bit worried for him because I know that not fitting in with the rest of your peers can make it more difficult to find that special someone.

I have no idea which one is the mom and which one the dad, but I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled next spring for a platinum-blonde baby!

Ahh..so cute! They eat dinner together often.

Even his tail looks a bit different than a usual grey squirrel tail

 

A couple of little chatterbox red squrrels playing in our street.

Mr. Chitters--I just decided to call him that.

We theorize that Blondie might be the result of an albino mating with a regular squirrel but your guess is as good as mine. Frankly, I'm glad of the mystery of it--gives us something to wonder about when we enjoy the outdoors this summer.

Cheers to you, Blondie, and your snowy white mate! May your littles be healthy and fluffy-tailed come spring.