In the meantime we have been trying to do things to have fun and to keep busy while we are waiting for Tater to do her last bits of growth and development. Things like putting the house together the way we’ll need it when Tater comes home, unpacking, organizing and even vegetable gardening have been a few of our pastimes these days (other than my excessive napping).

It has sure been quite a critter filled weekend for us though! Late last week we were out in the front yard planting some of the free iris’ we were given. I was working under the tree planting them and N was working under the mailbox.

All of the sudden this frog comes hopping out of the grass at me. I was pretty surprised by it but was also excited because I have never really played with a frog. We didn’t have many water sources in Arizona so in turn we didn’t have many frogs to encounter. Here with the water pond behind our house the frogs are everywhere so I got to play with one for a bit while gardening. Is this a frog or toad though?

Then on Saturday we were out on the deck enjoying the warm morning and planting some seeds when we noticed our outdoor cat, Haley, acting a bit odd. Dixie, our dog, was also quite interested in what Haley had going on. It turns out the cat caught a garden snake and was playing it to death.

N rescued it with a rake and we were sad that it’s head and body were bleeding. We grabbed it away from the cat mainly because we wanted to see if we could get some photos of it and figure out what kind of snake it was. The reason we were so curious about the type of snake is because we are pretty sure a much larger snake got Dixie a few weeks ago.

We noticed she was trying to get at something that went under the deck, she dug a huge hole that went under the deck. We also suspect she got bit while digging that hole. She’s been limping and babying her one paw for about 2 weeks. It is getting better now and she is doing fine but we are sure it was a bite of some sort. Hopefully not from a bigger snake!

Anyway, after taking some photos to reference and compare to what we’ve found online we let the poor garden snake slither off to safety. We still have no idea what kind of snake it is.

Haley was a bit bummed to have her torture subject freed but she got over it pretty quick.

We’ve got frogs frolicking in the back yard, snakes slithering in the brush and we even have huge scary spiders crawling through our grass (with egg sacks on their backs) as I discovered while putting a bunny out to run the yard. The critter fun never seemed to end!

The rabbits seem to be loving the supervised play time in the yard and Dixie is getting very good at not going crazy over the rabbits running free. I recorded a few videos of N, Dixie and Maybelle out in the yard.

Here N has a moment with Dixie, he is telling her how she’ll need to watch over Tater soon…

I also recorded a video of some crazy kicking of the belly while we were watching American Idol last week. The lightening is poor but you can still see the jabs and kicks (and you get to hear the song recaps too. LOL).

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A rooster need to have about 10 hens to himself and multiple roosters in a small space with limited hens means fighting over mates or overly abusing the few mating hens. My mom is facing the “too many roosters” issue right now.

She lives in a community called New River here in Arizona, it is in the heart of the desert. We were heading out to the chicken coup to see the hens who were suffered from overly aggressive/ frequent mating. Their wings were plucked bare and the roosters spurs were had dug hole in the hens sides.. Anyway, my mom was taking me out to see the flock and as we approached the coup I spotted this.

It is a very young rattle snake resting under a rock! As a native Arizonan I have been conditioned to always look at the ground and to scan several feet in front of you as you tromp through the dessert. Snake bites are not a fun thing to experience and if you aren’t aware of what you are walking near or on then you will get bit.

So I spotted the snake under the rock as we were approaching the chicken coup and stopped dead in my tracks. If I hadn’t been looking I would have stepped right on top of the rock the snake was resting under. This might have resulted in a nasty bite, not a great way to spend mothers day weekend!

I reached out and stopped my mom from walking any closer, burned my hand on her lit cigarette and we called for the men to come move the snake from the chicken coup, not before taking some photos and videos though!

I entered a contest for my mom over at lifetime.com. If you have a moment would you head over and vote for her photo? I would really like her to win! Thanks. http://www.mylifetime.com/photos/mothersday/rate.php?id=202848

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