Guess What I Got To See In My BFF’s Backyard?

I received a text from my BFF exclaiming the birth of twin fawns in her backyard and the fact that, “MY CAMERA WON’T WORK!!!”  Damn! What a bummer!

It is really rather strange because she has a corner lot (streets on two sides) and her next door neighbors have two dogs.  There are plenty of trees and shrubs running all the property lines, however.  And her shed in the back corner of her small yard is not up against the property line fence, so there is a sheltered spot along side of the shed that provides privacy.  Apparently enough that her yard was deemed good enough for a fawn nursery. (I should note that the line fences are not well-kept and there are gaps the deer can use to move around the neighborhood.)

This past weekend, though lacking a party spirit, I decided to celebrate my birthday with a trip to the Aviary.  This is up near where my BFF lives so we stopped by to drop off the puppy and pick her up. Ryder is not old enough to stay in the crate for long periods of time, so bringing him to her house means only a quick interrupt to the day, if necessary, rather than ending it early to get all the way back home to let him out.

As I was bringing him into the backyard, my BFF hissed from the back door, “NO, NO, the fawn is out there!” I got all excited.  Ryder was steered back to the front yard to pee and I grabbed my camera and headed for the backyard.  It took some time as I was looking for the fawn AND making sure I didn’t surprise Momma.  Deer may be cute but they are nasty little buggers that bite, strike, and kick. And I had zero desire to tangle with a mother protecting her young. Eventually I found a baby.

I had to get really close to see this little guy tucked away in the weeds.

I was very careful to be slow and quiet and not get too close.  I didn’t want to scare the fawn into taking off.  After some careful maneuvering and constant checking for Momma, I got this:

Isn’t he just the cutest? And sooo tiny!  No, we weren’t able to find the second fawn.  Deer stash their babies away from one another so if one baby gets taken by a predator the other will survive.

.  It was a wonderful experience to be able to get that close to such a young deer!

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Note: I have been having to get up waaay too early to ferry my son back and forth to work (we are car challenged).  It has been hard to adjust to the hours (have I mentioned I have sleep issues? 🙂 ) and the scheduling has put a crimp in my day. But we’re slowly adjusting and getting back into a rhythm.   Dealing with this and my brother’s cancer has made ‘normal’ a challenge. However, in keeping with trying to do as much ‘life as usual’; I will try to get back to posting.  My current goal is a twice a week minimum.  Fingers crossed!

Evening Visitors to the Yard

My cat Raven got all excited this evening.  Mrowing and making a squeaky noise, he pressed his nose to the glass.

Two yearlings gazing carefully around.

Eventually they decided it was safe to come eat up the bird seed that had been knocked to the ground.

Mom showed up and didn’t like me standing in the window taking pictures. A stomp of a hoof and everyone was gone.

 

Some Critter Pics

Fishies!

In a burst of industriousness, I scrubbed and bleached a one gallon fish tank that had been overrun with nasty blue-green algae awhile back.  I then put one of my bettas in it.  It was wonderful to see him swimming around in a shiny clean tank instead of his bowl.  After he’s been in the tank for a week and has gotten used to swimming in tank currents, or when I get my 5 gallon stripped, I’ll move him to the 5 gallon.

Have I mentioned how much of a pain in the butt it is to get pictures of a fish? I took about 30 and this was the best I could get!

He’s hiding in his cave!

As I was strolling through a local pet store (I shop pet stores like some women shop for shoes. 🙂 ), I spotted baby bettas!  Most were rather skinny and iffy.  But I did find one I was willing to take a risk buying (Two whole dollars!).

He is about 1 inch long. When I bought him I didn’t know what colors he had because he was so scared he had paled out and all you could see were two black fear stripes. You can see one starting to show on his side because he didn’t like the camera so close. It looks like he will have some blue on him. It’ll be fun watching him grow up and get his fins. Unless, of course, the ‘he’ turns out to be a ‘she’!

Hermit Crab Cleaning Itself

Look at the lower left part of the shell opening right behind the crab’s leg. See that little, skinny, pale thing? That’s a little arm that is attached underneath the crabs body. It is what the crab uses to clean itself and remove poop from inside the shell. See that wee short little leg above the skinny one? That is one of the legs that holds the crab tight inside his shell so that he can’t be pulled out.

Now the skinny arm is cleaning the shell leg!

Visitors to the Yard

I found this next to the driveway before the snow hit. ARGH! Deer poop!

The Husband caught these guys roaming through the yard in bright sunshine. Brazen little suckers!

Time for bed!  Nite!