Sleep and Ick

[mrissa]

I failed my sleep roll last night. *yawwwwwn* Going to be a long day. (Nothing in it seems particularly likely to drag on, it's just that I don't have a lot of energy to face strenuous things like pouring myself a mug of cranberry juice without staring at them for a minute to remember how this goes. Juice. In mug. Right.)

I am really, really tired of all my dreams taking place on a malfunctioning space station. I think my subconscious could get more creative than that about the vertigo. I really do.

Anyway. The excitement of yesterday came when my mom came over to help us out with house and yard stuff and was trimming the bushes in the front of the house. She found the foreleg of a deer. Ewwww. Fairly fresh, too. I thought about not mentioning this, but then I thought maybe it would be worth the reminder that Eagan in particular and suburban locations in general are not as completely distant from Nature Red In Tooth And Etc. as people might like to think. There have been sightings of cougars, coyotes, and at least one small brown bear in the area, though not in our neighborhood, in the time we've lived in Eagan. We're feeling pretty good about our decision not to let our 12-pound dog out in the fenced yard by herself after dark: anything that might stash a deer's foreleg in our bushes for later gnawing enjoyment would have no difficulty with Ista. Anyway the bushes are drastically cut back and will be less tempting for uninvited carnivores to skulk in, and also less likely to be guest-eating bushes. Go Mom.

Late June book post later. Now, more of The True Tale of Carter Hall.

Comments

[caoilfhionn.livejournal.com]

My parents, who live in Bloomington, spent the spring catching rabbits in a live trap and releasing them across the river. Imagine my father's surprise when he approached the trap one morning and found a lynx in the trap! He let it go in the yard, for future population control.

However, it does explain the various bunny bits that turn up in the lawn. Yecch.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Wow! I think if I had a lynx, I'd call Animal Control to do the releasing. Your dad's braver than I.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I was thinking along the same lines, yes.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

That would be small black bear, for anyone who's suddenly become very worried.

[pezwitch.livejournal.com]

A few weeks after we moved into our house in Bloomington there was a cougar sighting about 8 blocks away from us.

[pmrabble.livejournal.com]

Hopefully you're not falling out of bed when trying to get to the airlock (yesterday morning's stunt by the backbrain).

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Coyotes reached New York City a bit over ten years ago. (As I recall, the first one found was roadkill on the Major Deegan Expressway.)

There's an easy way to control coyotes, of course -- just bring back the wolves.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

On our way back from Denver, my lab had a round of Name That Varmint that ranged through rat, muskrat, beaver, woodchuck, and raccoon before our boss pulled out 'opossum'. It included a tale of a rampaging woodchuck-- a Mystery Beast had been eating a professor's garden and broken out of a rabbit trap, so he got the biggest trap the store had: puma. And this woodchuck pretty much filled the trap.

How did Ista react to the surprise chew toy?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. Ista was not allowed near the surprise chew toy. But she reacted with great excitement to her Mormor's reaction!

That is Quite Some Woodchuck.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised that the hardware store stocked puma traps as a regular item.