Friday, August 15, 2014

Friday Mishmash - All Creatures, Great and Small

It was like an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom around here this week!  Here's what we encountered, just since Saturday:

Skunk.  Well, we didn't SEE it, but hooboy, did we smell it.  When, you might be wondering?  About two seconds after we'd let Paco outside.  I don't think he got sprayed directly, but rather, the skunk had just left his mark and Paco walked into it.  Super fun, as it was 4:30 a.m. and we were busy getting ready for running club.  We had to leave him all smelly until later, but thanks to Debby's skunk shampoo recipe that she'd recently posted, we got him washed up and smelling like a dog again.

Bees.  That same day, Jeff took Paco to sit outside in the sun to dry off from his bath.  All of a sudden I heard "BEES!" and they came running back in.  THIS was outside our kitchen window:
That is a blanket of bees draping over the eave!!!

I have a beekeeper friend and called him, because I knew enough to not kill them.  He came over about an hour later - in the meantime, they'd moved to our living room window:
Jeff thought it was fascinating.  I said I would think it was fascinating if I were watching this on TV, not right outside my window!
Another view.  Pretty sure there were about a million bees at this point.

My friend came over, did his beekeeping observations, and said that there was a queen in this mess, and her workers were looking for a place to build a hive.  He thought they'd probably move on, but made plans to come back the next day and remove them if they were still there (he had somewhere to be that day, so he couldn't remove them until then).  Later on, we noticed they weren't on the screen, so Jeff went in the backyard and saw this:
According to our beekeeper friend, they were resting on the roof...they were tired from all that swarming around.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but this was about 3x3 feet in dimension.

By late morning on Sunday, most of the bees were gone.  Whew!  I know bees are necessary, but I'm a NIMBY (not in my backyard) person when it comes to them.

Rats.  Our youngest came home for a quick trip over the weekend, so we got to see the new little ratties again.  They have bonded quite well with the older rat, Louise:
Louise and her look-alike, Andi.
Louise keeping Andi and Olli warm?  They all seemed content.  I think Louise is enjoying mothering the little ones.

Cicada/Bat.  OK, not a bat, but when it flew at me, I thought it was one, so the scare counts for that, right?  Story here, in case you missed it.

Bunnies.  Julia picked me up early on Wednesday to go to Planet Fitness, and we saw two pet bunnies just hanging out, near my driveway.  The next morning, she came over to run, and when we finished, the bunnies were right by the big green grassy area in the middle of our street.  They must belong to someone, because when I got near them, the brown one came right up to me:
Please to ignore the sweat - that is what 45 minutes of running at 5:30 a.m. looks like.  The ears on the brown bunny were huge!  They stood straight up, while the ears on the tan bunny were all soft and floppy.  The tan bunny is just munching away on the grass...breakfast time!
Not the greatest pictures, but it was dark.  Cute little things - I later found out that the neighbor two houses down owns them, and can't seem to keep them in the backyard. 

Dog.  Of course I had to include Paco!  As soon as I picked up my phone, he posed:
Um Mom?  I wud like to meet bunniez.  Promise not to chase dem.  PROMISE.

Sure Paco...sure.

Have a great weekend!

30 comments:

  1. Oh my. Seeing all those bees just gave me the heebie jeebies! I am glad they are gone

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    1. Seeing the pictures again makes me shudder! I am very glad they left.

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    2. Same here...made my skin crawl. Good thing no one was hurt.

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    3. I guess it's a good thing I didn't post the video Jeff took of the bees buzzing as they swarmed to the window...that was really creepy!

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  2. Me too! I think it's because it's dark again when I go out. This week on my runs I encountered skunks, raccoons, deer, and possums. Plus assorted dogs and cats of course. You'd never know I live in a small city. We also had a swarm of bees or hornets - crazy. Later on that morning, Mr. Helen found a HUGE nest/hive built right under the lights on our garage. We hadn't noticed it because it blended right in. That's gone now, thank you very much!

    I want to see bunnies, which I haven't seen - those are fun!

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    1. I guess summertime brings out all the animals? It is a little crazy, though.

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  3. Holy cow on the bees! I've never seen anything like that before. I would have been terrified as I m severely allergic to bees!
    My mom's labrador also got sprayed by aa skunk this week!

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    1. I guess it must be skunk season!

      Yeah, I would have freaked out with those bees had any of us been allergic.

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  4. That's crazy about the bees. That would freak me out. Glad they moved elsewhere. Love the picture of Paco. He's a handsome fella.

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  5. Ooh, completely freaky about the bees! I wonder where they moved to? Can't believe Paco got skunked! Noah got it again a couple says ago-- not as bad, but my partial bath wasn't as successful either... Your neighbor is going to be minus a couple of bunnies pretty soon. They are pretty defenseless animals . Why yes, I have also raised rabbits-- angora rabbits for spinning fiber!

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    1. I wondered where the bees moved to for a split second, then decided I didn't care, as long as they were NIMBY. ;)

      Yeah, I am not thrilled at the thought of finding bunny parts around here soon. I talked with a different neighbor, and she had the same sinking feeling as me...these little cuties won't last long. I don't understand getting pets and not taking care of them - build a dang hutch!!! Argh.

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  6. I'm a mess when one bee is buzzing around. Your swarm would having me locked away in a room with a towel under the door and blocking any vents for fear of them intruding the house. Good grief! I'm happy for you that they moved on. Have a great weekend.

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    1. I was a little worried that they might come down the chimney flue! We discovered that our house is pretty airtight, at least.

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  7. WHOA. Those bees are crazy! It's lucky that you even know a bee-keeper, I wouldn't know what to do if that happened here! Our windows are always open (because it's in the 60's/low-70's here - sorry!), so I imagine I'd find out we have a bunch of bees when they start buzzing around inside. Yikes.

    There was a bunny taunting my dogs on our walk one morning earlier this week - it kept hopping just out of reach, and the dogs went crazy trying to keep up with it. Oh, and there's a couple birds who made a nest under one of our window a/c units, but I'm the only one who seems to hear them (my non-hunting dogs are somehow oblivious).

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    1. It's pretty random that I know a beekeeper - I got lucky in that I didn't have to call around in a bit of a panic. Yikes on the open windows. I swear, I would have abandoned ship...er, house.

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  8. Wow ....all those bees! Kinda interesting, yet scary to see such a mass of them. Your picture of the bunnies is priceless! We've just moved to British Columbia & it's routine to see bear warning notices in the community we live in [east of Vancouver]. Now that's scary!!!

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  9. ahhhhhh bees. they are not that bad. hahano. but wasps are horrible. then here in IL we have something that is a cicada killing giant wasp that burrows in the ground with a cicada body and lays eggs in the body. it's huge! like 2 inches!! ugh.

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  10. My cousin is a beekeeper. I am glad you didn't have an exterminator come. :D I would be kinda freaked out, though.

    That lady better figure out how to keep her bunnies at home or they are going to get squished!

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    1. I can be altruistic toward bees as long as they're outside. Inside? WAR.

      And yeah, I'm afraid we're going to see squished bunnies one of these days. Sigh...

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  11. I'm allergic to bees so just looking at the pics gave me the heebeejeebees! I would have been panicked not knowing who to call! Have a great weekend :)

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    1. Makes you want to look up local beekeepers now, just in case, right? ;)

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  12. I've been seeing sandhill cranes a lot lately.
    Swarming bees are amazing AND nerve wracking. My friend is a bee-keeper and has been called to "collect" a swarm and take it to her hives. I admire her (we NEED our bees) but I couldn't do it. I also appreciate the free honey I get, yum.

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    1. Yeah, I'm glad someone is willing to collect the bees. Just not gonna be me...ever.

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  13. And to think I complain when we try to eat outside on the patio and 2 or 3 bees decide to join us! Ewww *shudder* What was the sound like? Must have been very loud, with all those bees buzzing.

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    1. It sounded like something out of a scary movie - so freaky to have that happening right outside our window!!!

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  14. I have NEVER seen the likes of those bees. Wow, good thing you have a beekeeper friend!

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  15. Oh my bees are so necessary but when there are so many on your house: that's scary and it's much more preferred they nest elsewhere.

    I had to laugh at Paco, guess he wasn't happy he had to take a bath after the skunk "attack" and that last pic is so adorable.

    I recently had the same with a bunny like you. I found out whose it was and told them it escaped. They said the bunny did that more often. A couple of days I saw it again but since they didn't bother much about it, I didn't say it again.

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