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<\/a>Tom the Tarantula<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n I have always been an animal lover.\u00a0 Okay, maybe really just a dog lover. I can tolerate the occasional cat.\u00a0 But last month I reached the limits of my admiration<\/strong> for the animal kingdom when a giant tarantula appeared on my front door.\u00a0 Now generally I am not afraid of spiders.\u00a0 Living in Arizona requires that you become adept at squashing any number of arachnoids with the heel of your shoe.\u00a0 But this thing was roughly the size of the Volkswagen<\/strong> I drove in college.\u00a0 Our security department takes care of wayward desert animals so I called to see if they could remove the tarantula.\u00a0 Ten minutes later a young man came walking up to my front entrance with a little grin on his face.\u00a0 I’m sure he thought I was some gray-haired old lady afraid of a little spider.\u00a0 When I pointed to Tom the Tarantula (we were on a first-name basis by then), he turned toward the window and his mouth flew open.<\/strong>\u00a0 “Oh my God,” he shouted. He told me he’d never seen one so large.\u00a0 He eventually got a piece of paper, scraped it off the window and took it out to the street.\u00a0 I had visions of Tom returning, perhaps when I was fast asleep.\u00a0 But the guard assured me that within a few hours he would be eaten by a coyote or snake.\u00a0 Rest in Peace, Tom.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Lovely Rattlesnakes<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Over the past year I’ve had an unusual number of encounters with local wildlife.\u00a0 We had rattlesnakes that visited our lot<\/strong> when we were building the house (they are territorial, and we disrupted their space) but since we moved into the house in 2000, we haven’t seen another one.\u00a0 Until last year.\u00a0 They usually go into hibernation when the weather turns colder, so you can imagine my surprise when I came home from a dinner at the beginning of November to find a rattlesnake in the yard.\u00a0 And not just the yard – but in Dash the Wonder Dog’s dog run.\u00a0 Luckily my flashlight caught the glint of his skin<\/strong>, and I was able to grab Dash before he had an ugly encounter.\u00a0 And me a $5,000 anti-venom vet bill.\u00a0 Our security people came and took him out of my yard.\u00a0 Two weeks later, the day before Thanksgiving, I went out to check my backflow valve and when I lifted the cover, lo and behold, there was a rattlesnake coiled around one of the pipes.<\/strong>\u00a0 I’ve never run so damn fast in my life.\u00a0 Again, security came to the rescue, but I’m sure they were beginning to suspect I was running a breeding farm.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Be Very Afraid<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Last fall I also encountered one of the desert’s worst sort – the Colorado River Toad.\u00a0 These toads are nothing like Kermit the Frog<\/strong>.\u00a0 These guys are mean<\/em>.\u00a0 They are smooth-skinned and dark, with a distinct cranial crest that curves above each eye, giving them a killer look from the outset. They are only semi-aquatic, meaning they burrow around and seek out water sources.\u00a0 Again, this toad showed up out in the dog run.\u00a0 He looked so vicious that I immediately looked up types of toads, spotted the species, and learned that their defense mechanism is a poison they emit that is lethal<\/strong> enough to kill a dog.\u00a0 The next morning he was gone. Two weeks ago, I let Dash out right before bed and saw one sitting underneath my A\/C condensation pipe, basking in the water.\u00a0 I took the Scarlet O’Hara approach and decided to deal with it the next morning.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the bugger was still there.\u00a0 Once again, Security came and caught him and remarked on his large size.\u00a0 My pool man says that he’s seen more of these toads this year than in any of the 30 years he’s been working on pools.\u00a0 Great.<\/p>\n The owl, critiquing my cooking<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Coyotes are a regular part of our existence, in fact, we have a coyote pathway<\/strong> right outside my kitchen window. Since I’ve become accustomed to them over the past 24 years, I’m not frightened by them anymore.\u00a0 I just double-check they aren’t running to the supermarket when I take Dash out.\u00a0 Javelinas are another animal we live with, but they usually only cause problems by destroying plants<\/strong>.\u00a0 We shrug them off; the deer always destroyed our gardens when we lived in California.\u00a0 We also have regular visits from owls, who I learned are quite cunning.\u00a0 A friend lost her dog when an owl swooped down, picked it up, and carried it off to who knows where.\u00a0 I had this one peering in the kitchen window a couple of years ago, but I think the sour look was due to his appraisal of my cooking skills.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Beautiful bobcat<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Every once in a while, we get a beautiful, but equally frightening<\/strong> bobcat that visits our yard.\u00a0 During Covid I guess he was having a hard time finding food (and it was an especially hot summer) so he camped out on our back patio almost every afternoon, hoping the occasional rabbit would step into his lair.\u00a0 He truly was a beautiful animal, and I felt sorry for him, as his bony ribs heaved up and down as he panted to try to cool off.\u00a0 But not sorry enough<\/strong> to set out a of bowl of water.\u00a0 I’m hoping he found food and shelter at a non-dog owner’s home.<\/p>\n I’ve been tested in many ways this year, but those snakes and toads<\/strong> have just about taken me over the edge.\u00a0 Thank God for the nice young men in our security department that come to my rescue.\u00a0 I think I’m going to owe them a big check at Christmas this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I have always been an animal lover.\u00a0 Okay, maybe really just a dog lover. I can tolerate the occasional cat.\u00a0 But last month I reached the limits of my admiration for the animal kingdom when a … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/rattlesnake-300x199.jpg\")
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