McElhaney's Menagerie

It seems that since I posted Fultz's Funny Farm, animals have been constantly in my path! If I believed that Mom was looking down on me, I'd think she was pulling a prank!

We don't have house pets for several reasons. When we were first married, we lived in a townhouse, not a lot of space and no yard. Not the place for animals! During that time, we learned that Les has very severe allergies which include pet dander. So, even though we have a yard now, still no pets. That doesn't mean we don't enjoy the ones God sends our way! There are also a few I would rather not have! You can figure which category they fall into:

Bobcats. When I was a child, my favorite animals at the zoo or to read about were the big cats. Lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards. I am fascinated by their strength and grace. We took our nephews (Wes and Reece) to the Santa Barbara Zoo on an overcast day last October and enjoyed the lions as they roared! So our very own bobcats have been a treat. The first one we saw was Christmas morning 2001, when we had been in our house less than a year. He was sitting on a fence post at the top of our greenbelt, surveying the land. Since that time we have had several visits, the most notable being June 2004, when Momma "B" had twins! The pictures I have posted were taken in our backyard.

Coyotes and Road Runners. Neither of them are as big as Warner Bros. would have you believe. Our coyotes aren't very wiley, but the road runners are fast!

Rats and mice. Ugh! There is good and bad about having open land behind our house. Rats definitely fall in the bad category. Between our bobcats and pool, the population has diminished a bit in the last few years!

Snakes. I haven't stepped on one yet, but I'm sure it will happen at some point when I take out the trash! I've only seen gopher or king snakes - no rattlers, hallelujah! The snake in these pictures came out when our gardener was replacing a tree. Poor Roberto, he was scared to death!

Lizards. When we first moved in, there were some metal trash cans left by the previous owner. The poor lizards would climb in those, loving the extreme heat the metal produced, but of course they couldn't get out. Those guys move fast on the ground - thus no pictures!

Birds. We've had so many birds, I don't know if I can list them all. I love watching the hawks soaring high above us. I've seen a few owls that really do say "whoo". This summer we had a nest, with one baby that kept falling out. We've also had ducks in our pool thinking it was a great pond! Then there is "chirper" - the bird that loves to chirp quite loudly at 5:00 a.m.

Vultures. Yes, they are birds. But they deserve their own paragraph! One morning in 2004, when we had the twin bobcats, I looked out and saw vultures circling. I couldn't believe it! I thought that only happened on old westerns!! But there they were... circling, circling, and occasionally swooping down. I thought perhaps one of the bobcats was hurt, but I saw them a few days later, so I assume the bobcats had made a great kill of which the vultures wanted the remains.

Deer. This is the time of year we usually see deer. As everything gets drier, they come closer looking for water and plants or grass to munch on. When our niece Claire was almost 4 she came for a visit (with her dad, Lance). It was almost Christmas, so I took her to our company's children's party and we all went to Disneyland. Les, Lance, and Claire also climbed the hill behind our house and saw deer while they were out. Upon returning to Indiana, Claire reported to her grandmother, "Nana, I climbed a mountain and petted a reindeer!" Awe, the embellishments of children!

We've also had raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, possums, and skunks!