Adventures with Wildlife

So, Oscar Peterson is a yellow bellied slider. Thanks goes to my friend Doug for identifying him. I went online to check, and oh yeah, that's him. So I'm happy, because now I know better how to care for him. There aren't very good instructions for "little turtle that must have crawled up from Greenfield Lake." We got him a UV lamp this weekend. He's eating a little more. So far, so good.

We found a litter of 5 kittens in the front yard last night and I am very, very upset about it. I've almost posted several rants about my neighbors and their insistence on feeding the stray cats who are now so numerous that they travel in packs up and down the street. These cats are sickly and flea-ridden and carrying god knows what diseases. They poop in our yards and live under our houses, peeing and pooping under there like it's a huge litterbox put erected for their convenience. They yowl all night and kitten at all times of the year, including January, causing me to have to spend countless hours combing the yard for kittens before letting my dogs out. Because, people, my dogs WILL eat the cats.

It's no life for them. They're always gummy-eyed and being run over by cars. They're not wild because they don't have to hunt, but they're not domesticated because they're not CARED for. Animal control won't come and pick them up--they say they'll come and get them if I rent traps and catch them, but otherwise, it's my problem. The supposed fine for keeping strays is something like $50 for every instance of an unlicensed animal, and $50 for an animal with no rabies shot. I'd love to somehow sic animal control on the neighbors and have them charged for every single cat and kitten within a 2 block radius. Perhaps then it wouldn't be so "cute" to see them all come running up at feeding time.

Look, I don't mean to sound cold-hearted. There are 5 adorable days-old baby kittens in my front yard. Yes, they're sweet, but I know what they are going to grow up into. And I take my responsibilities as a pet owner very seriously.

I tried to capture the kittens, but I only got one (because it's already ill, I think) and it didn't seem fair to take him away from the others all scared and sick, so I put him back and I'm going to try again to get them all together and then take them to the shelter. Until then, it's yard patrol.

In final wildlife news, I'm on a crusade against the slugs that are eating my daylilies. As you know, I'm deathly afraid of worms and slugs are pretty much the same concept. When I unearthed a huge nest of them under the garden edging I nearly died of disgust and fear and rage and shock. So I put out dishes of beer around the daylilies and for the first 12 hours, nothing seemed to be happening. But the next morning, there were 25 dead slugs at the bottom of the beer. I almost took a picture of the death pool to show you, but I also almost puked when I saw it. So I don't think that needs to live on my blog.