Bumblebees

So “they” have been saying in the news lately that the bees seem to be dying off, and nobody has yet figured out why. I’m afraid we’ve been contributing to this die-off in a small way since we’ve moved here – but only towards the invasive ones. Bumblebees have been invading our house, [...]

Killer mosquito bites: the gruesome totals

I counted up the bites on Regina and Isaiah, who were the ones who got bit the worst. Regina has about six dozen bites covering her face, arms and legs. Isaiah takes the prize, however, with a grand total of about ten dozen bites – a full three dozen on his neck alone. [...]

Attack of the Killer Mosquitoes

Down here in Southern Florida there are mosquito-fighting aircraft that are hired to regularly fly over cities and spray out pesticides to reduce the number of mosquitoes roaming around. It seems to work pretty well; in the two years we’ve been here I haven’t seen as many mosquitoes down here as I used to [...]

Update on various creatures around the house

Cat: we got him checked out, and it turns out that what he has is not ringworm, but some kind of allergic reaction. Whew! What a relief. That will make everything a lot easier in these upcoming weeks, since an allergic reaction is not contagious. And he’s pretty happy to [...]

Reverse Psychology

We employ this sometimes with our kids in certain circumstances, and it can work pretty well.  Example:  child’s will is thwarted in some way; child looks upset; parent orders child to “start crying now!”; child brightens up and looks happy.
We’re figuring out that this kind of thing can work on cats as well.  Early on [...]

Rescue Mission Attempt

This is a Eurasian Collared Dove we are attempting to take care of until he (she?) can fly again.  Fortunately, these birds eat seeds, and not worms or bugs, so feeding it is easy enough.  I don’t know if just giving it food and water and a safe place to stay will be enough though; [...]

Babies and Cats

Why is it that cats and babies both like to come up behind you while your back is turned and position themselves carefully so that you can’t turn around without stepping on or tripping over the cat/baby?  You’d think they liked getting stepped on/tripped over…until you heard them crying.  Argh.  Nothing better to create guilt [...]

Cats and Birds

I’ve always known that cats will chase birds.  I never knew, however, that birds will chase back!  For quite a while now our cat has had dreams of catching birds, and will chase them up trees and across the yard.  But it was only in the last few weeks that I noticed that the birds [...]

Spontaneous Generation?

So how does a creature this big suddenly appear in a screened-in porch overnight?  Just how fast do they grow anyway?  It rained that night, and the garden seems able to grow several inches during a rain, so maybe toads do too.

Metamorphosis

A while ago David found a few Black Swallowtail caterpillars in the garden in the dill plant, and we put them in a container with some fresh dill for them to eat.
It was only a few days before they spun themselves cocoons, and then a little over a week later, they emerged, one by [...]