menagerie

This year we have had an abundance of wild creatures who have paid visits to our back yard.  We have had the usual deer, rabbits, hawks, and squirrels.  Honorable mention goes to the large skunk that has been wandering around for the past couple of months.  Our dog was an unfortunate victim to it's aromatic spray.  Not a fun thing.  He was an outcast for several weeks and we still catch a strong whiff here and there.  Luckily it wasn't one of our children, as they would have enjoyed an extended campout until the smell went away.  

This past week we cleared out all the weeds under our deck and found several slimy critters who had

been making their homes amongst the three-foot high weeds.  

My kids have no degree of healthy fear when it comes to animals.  Seconds after taking this photo, Eli grabbed a hold of "Jake the snake" and ran a few laps around our kitchen before any of us could snatch it away.  

We rescued this turtle from being roadkill earlier today.....not sure if our house full of eager amateur biologists was a much better place than the busy street.

He was quickly introduced to some potential friends.

They were performing circus worthy tricks in no time.

Kiss-kiss.  And yes, Halle got in on some of the action as well.....in the essence of keeping things clean around here, I will keep those for private viewing.