I Can't Even BEGIN To Interpret This...

there were a lot of bizarre situations in my dreams last night, including (but not limited to) me playing tennis - something i haven't done since high school, and then not competitively or even seriously - and winning large amounts loose jewels (mostly emeralds, sapphires, and rubies) for said tennis playing, dancing on the beach and tossing some of the aforementioned stones into the water, and dressing up as a vegas showgirl for a photo shoot. all this pales in comparison to the oddest and most inexplicable part of the dream. normally, it's pretty easy for me to figure out what's going on in my dreams; i can connect them to events or emotions in my life, or things i've recently seen or heard. but this... i got nothing. SO random. and so oddly specific. here it is:

i was wandering through the woods taking photos, and then decided to head back to my car. when i was almost there, a policeman/security officer type person in a dark uniform rode up on the back of a clydesdale stallion (although i referred to it as a lippizaner), holding a golden retriever puppy. (only he wasn't really puppy, he was just young, about 2 years old. see? oddly specific.) the retriever started singing the first line to queen's "somebody to love" and the horse joined in on the word "love." then the horse repeated the line. i took a picture of them as they trotted past, and was very impressed with the animals' singing voices, though disappointed that they didn't know more of the song.

yep. and i didn't even eat anything before bedtime, so i have no idea where any of that came from. anyone got any ideas? 'cause i've got nothing...

Is It Weird That I Feel Bad?

caught (what is presumably) mouse #3 and set him outside. i clearly can't leave them in my house to run amok when i'm away (amok, amok, amok!), but i feel awful for exiling them to the frozen tundra that is the outside world. i worry that they won't find a decent place for shelter or enough food - what the hell is wrong with me? they're field mice - they know how to survive outside, right? but what if they're little, and were born inside... will their instincts still kick in so they can find food and shelter? or will they freeze their little tails off? i'll feel terrible if i went through all the trouble of trapping them and setting them free just to give them a death sentence outside. i think i need help... or a higher dosage of zoloft...

If I Could Just Teach Him How To Ride a Motorcycle...

for the last few weeks, i've been living with a mouse. i thought it was just one, now i KNOW it's at least two, and it may have been three, though one is back outside freezing his butt off. i have no desire to kill the poor things (because, really, who can blame them for wanting a nice warm place to stay?) but they're too damn clever for their own good. i got one out (i think) a week or so ago - the trap was closed, it seemed heavier, and i put it outside... thing was, it was too cold that morning for me to hang around to watch, so i just set it up and left it. when i got back from work, it was empty, and i figured a) i caught him and got him out, or 2) he figured out how to get the peanut butter out and i didn't get him at all. then i heard scampering the next night and figured i didn't really trap him at all. but this morning the trap was closed, but didn't really feel any heavier. i looked inside, but saw nothing. apparently, though, this mouse was tiny and managed to curl up in the back and i didn't see him. when i saw the little brown one a few minutes ago, i got up to reset the trap. when i pulled out the back to put in more peanut butter, out plunked the other mouse (which was a rude awaking, since he seemed to be snoozing - took him a second to take off) onto the floor. i've reset the trap, but i'm afraid that now they know what happens when you get the peanut butter, they won't even get near the thing again. *sigh* i refuse to kill them, because that's just plain mean, but there aren't a lot of "catch and release" traps out there... most of them are the fatal kind. and though they don't really get into much (at least not of MY stuff - who knows what they do in the rest of the basement) they really need to go. time for round two...

A Dog Named Mayzie, Part 2

my apartment complex has slowly but surely been turning from a stately stone color to obnoxious shades that could be found in the kitchen. it ranges from a lemon yellow, which is tolerable, to a mac-and-cheese orange, which isn't. now it's my section's turn to be painted. this sucks for the mayzie-dog, as she is a sit-outside-and-look-at-the-world-around-her kind of dog; she simply can't do that with paint fumes and ladders and construction workers about. so sadly, just two days after coming home with me, mayzie is going to live with rob's parents until the painting is completely over (or maybe till i move). they have a nice fenced-in yard, which she needs, so i'm sure she'll be very happy there. plus, of course i'll come visit whenever i can. maybe she really belongs to rob's parents, or to someone who will come over and meet her. i mentioned before how i felt that i had to take her home but she didn't necessarily belong to me. now she's being relocated... i hope this means she'll find her "true" home soon and be happy.

A Dog Named Mayzie

so i accidentally got a dog this weekend... i didn't mean to and i can't really afford one right now, but it just didn't seem to be an option; she was supposed to come home with me. the weird thing is that i don't think she's meant to be my dog - i think she's meant to be my mom's new pet - besides, she needs open spaces to run in, and i just can't give them to her in an apartment setting. so i guess i'm just dog-sitting until my parents come down in a few weeks...

Normally I'm Not All About the "Cute Animal" Pictures...

... but you gotta appreciate good captioning. and the occasional classical allusion...

Raccoon - 5, Parents - 1

i went home to visit the parentals at the end of july. they picked me up in pittsburgh and we headed back to the house. as i carried in my stuff, i noticed a long metal cage sitting on the deck. "what's that for?" i asked. "the raccoon," my mother answered. "we have a raccoon?" "not on purpose." apparently the raccoon had been tearing up the yard and eating the votive candles out of mom's terra cotta luminaries. "candles?" "yes, he very carefully pulls them up out of the holders and i guess he thinks they might be food. he munches around the outside, realizes he can't eat it, and moves on." all this, and he's not so much as tipped over the breakable holders. the yard, however, is looking pretty rough, so my parents decided to trap him and take him up to cooper's rock (a local state park) and let him go up there.

they had tried to catch him the night before i arrived using hamburger as bait, but to no avail. in the morning, the hamburger was gone, and the trap was still set - and almost caught the cat, who is clearly not as clever as the raccoon. according to my uncle (who lent them the trap - why he had a raccoon trap, i'm sure i don't know), the best bait is sardines. um, ok. so that night, dad set the trap. in the morning the cage held... nothing. the sardines were gone, and this time the trap was closed, as if the raccoon wanted to show us that either a) he knew how this trick worked, or b) he was the houdini of the nocturnal world. raccoon 2, parents 0.

they tried again, this time with dad fashioning a cup to hold the sardines, which would be affixed to the cage. theoretically, the raccoon would have to climb into the trap in order to get the food. this time, the cup was intact and unmoved, the trap was opened, and the sardines were gone. raccoon 3, parents 0.

on the fourth attempt - with more rigging and wiring of sardine holders - a raccoon was caught. unfortunately, it wasn't the one they were after. this was a baby raccoon, who was all kinds of scared to be stuck in the cage. he was too young to have learned the finesse of the older raccoon, who was still free. my parents, animal-lovers both even though they were tired of the raccoon shenanigans, tried to calm the poor baby before dad took him up to cooper's rock to find distant relatives. so technically, raccoon 4, parents 0; but since they did catch a raccoon (though it wasn't the raccoon), i'll give them raccoon 4, parents 1.

a few days after i returned to orlando, my mother called to tell me they had tried a new tactic. you guessed it: this time the cup and the sardines made it out of the cage, without the trap ever catching. raccoon 5, parents 1. and the battle continues...

Emmett Otter and His Pond-Side Friends

sometimes i am so caught up in the heat and humidity and swampiness of florida that i forget that nature can be beautiful - even here. i was reminded today as i walked past the pond in front of my apartment building.

there were my ducks, of course, haning out poolside and enjoying the day. (ok, they aren't actually MY ducks as i don't own them, or feed them, or shelter them in any way. but they always seemed pleased to see me, and when i call out my habitual "hello, duckers!", they bob their heads at me and the male usually squawks a cheerful response.)



in addition to the usual ducks, there was another with three little baby ducks. Mamma duck went for a walk with one of her kids while the other little duckers took a nap in a nearby bush. (they were little hams, too, waddling right past me and stopping to pose.)


and then, just for fun, there was a family of four otters playing about in the pond today. (actually one of them was tormenting one of the ducks by swimming under the water and scaring the shit out of it... it was pretty amusing, really.) they frolicked in the water, then frolicked on what used to be the base for a water fountain, then frolicked in the water some more. they were overall pretty darn adorable.














and last but not least was the blue heron hanging out in the sun as well.


i had a veritable menagerie outside my door today. it made me happy. just had to share... :o)