Looking this morning when it was light out, there was only one spot of obvious damage. They apparently had crashed into the house (brick construction thankfully) just next to the glass door, as the plastic junction box for the cable company (which we thankfully don't use) located there was partially shattered with bits of it lying all around the patio. Fortunately that was the only damage to the house, but it was quite the shock when it happened. I tried to get pictures, but the lack of light was too much for the flash on my cellphone camera to see anything but black :(

So, has anyone else had any interesting encounters with their local wildlife lately? :)

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

Because he was drunk and thought his wife had locked him out.

Of his house.

Which he wasn't at.

Because he was drunk.

And so forth.

Dad managed to talk him down and get him to go away, and he came back the next day hungover and deeply sheepish to bestow upon us an apology ham, but it was a bit sporty for a while there.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Bad part is, nine times out of ten? The victim trusses the buck up and takes it home, where it becomes... well, dinner. Fried tenderloin steak is a local favorite. I wish I could still eat it; gout, unfortunately, has put a stop to my venison consuming days.

Edited to add: This happens with alarming regularity. It's almost as if they're learning to fight back, or being trained. I dread the day when one bursts through its skin to show blue metal beneath...

The oddest encounter I've ever had with wildlife was the day we had to completely stop the small boat we were on because a pod of orca's were passing by and we didn't want to accidently drive over one. Neat thing about that was the occasional baby would pull a wack a mole and pop up nearby trying to look at the fleshy things inside the boat. The scariest was all we saw of the bull was over six feet of dorsal fin that was uncomfortably close.

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Polychrome

The storms that summer that peaked with (then) record flooding from Omaha to Kansas City were horrendous. For context, the enclosure at the zoo for the red pandas is open on top, for the very simple reason that red pandas can jump about as well as a concrete block with lead weights. The last storm dropped a microburst on Manhattan, knocking trees all over town all kinds of catiwampus, including one of the climbing limbs in the panda's enclosure. The limb was knocked over far enough that the top of the limb extended out over enclosure into the surrounding trees.

As you might guess, when the clean-up began the next day, Mr. Panda had gone walk-about. The zoo sits on a hill, with woods extending from the zoo all the way down to the next urbanized area on the west and south faces; the panda's enclosure was just over the west-facing down slope woods.

The zoo called in all hands, brought in vet students and wildlife management students from Kansas State University and spent 2 day's combing that hillside. Nothing. Day three broke with the zoo personnel having decided Mr. Panda had ended up bobcat food (a couple of which live in the woods around the zoo).

The phone rang into the zoo just after lunch on that day 3. The person calling was a very polite British ex-patriot who had been lecturing at K-State on international diplomacy. The gentleman's home was a good 2 miles southwest from the zoo, with 4 lane highways separating his housing development from the zoo.

What follows is a fairly close quote from what the gentleman said. "Yes, hello. I was wondering if you might give me a bit of assistance. I have this odd-looking red animal in one of my backyard trees. It does not appear to be listed in my Mammals of North America and I was wondering if you might help me identify it."

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>