In the space of a few weeks we had the five encounters with wild animals -- all within walking distance of our house.
It started one Saturday morning while I was up on the roof stuffing steel wool into the cracks around the house. I was up on the ladder, Kerry and the boys were doing some gardening. Then out of the stillness was the most horrific scream. Kerry came running -- all in a panic. She was trimming the lavender, when she reached into the bush to trim it she saw this snake.
Backyard snake on a pole.
After putting the snake on the otherside of our fence, I climbed back on my ladder, when a rat ran past my face.
Sunday I got up and looked onto our deck and saw a dead rat.
Rat taking the dirt nap.
We've been setting out poison and traps to reduce the Valencia population of rats.
On my way home from work, I saw some large birds hopping accross the road less than 1/2 a block from our house.
Valencia Vultures. I keep telling myself I live in the city.
Then about a week later we were working in the garage, and as we were walking back into the house, Campbell yelled, "I see a snake!" We thought we was kidding, but he yelled again, and down just inches from the door into the house was another large smake.
This snake had become trapped in some netting we had in the garage. Kerry cut him free while I held him still. The snake was injured, so we took him the the Placerita Nature Center for some rehab.
The saying "If it were a snake it would have bit you" no longer holds any meaning for our family -- we walked past the garage snake several times before we even noticed it.