Backyard National Geographic!

It seems that Hubby and I have recently been host to a strange list of wildlife - and why, oh why, couldn't any of our visitors have been cute little bunnies?

Last week Hubby and I were watching a little television in our family room. Our poor old arthritic 16 year old kitty suddenly went crazy attacking the patio doors. The great hunter had scouted out a (hideous) white possum peeking in at us! They are just never, ever cute! We are still having very cold weather and evidently Mr. Possum was trying to find a warm place to spend the night - guess I can't blame him for that. Here he is, the poor homely guy - kind of looks like a giant rat! I just hope Mr. doesn't have a Mrs. and a brood of little visitors!

Just the day before the possum visit, Hubby discovered a HUGE hawk on our back yard fence. I managed to get within 6 feet of him while taking a picture before he flew away. I was surprised that he let me get so close to him until I noticed the enormous claws he sported. I think he knew he could take me! He was already grasping some poor little creature for lunch - yuk!

The next one takes the cake. Our next door neighbors moved out of their home due to foreclosure almost two years ago. They were never very concerned about the condition of their house or yard, but since the house has been vacant it has sunk to new lows. Take a careful look at the picture below. This mostly dead tree is in the yard next to us but it hangs over our fence and garden. See the EIGHT sets of glowing, yellow dots? They're raccoons! Once again, my poor old kitty nearly keeled over with heart failure early one evening. When I went to see what he was so upset about I was greeted by a tree FULL of raccoons! I stood staring in amazement and the furry creatures stared right back. I don't know. I'm almost afraid to see what Spring brings.