New Zoo Review

Great White Dispatch
Notes from Damn Near Canada
No. 3

09/09/08
1400

Last night, I nearly ran over a fox in my own driveway. That about sums up what it’s like up here.

Two weeks in. Summer is over pretty much officially. While the movers were unloading our stuff, it was 95 degrees and humid. Then there was a freak afternoon thunderstorm after which the temp dropped at least 25 degrees. And that was how autumn arrived. It’s been cold as a republican’s heart ever since.

More animal business:

On the third night here, we heard a terrible screeching in the woods. Sounded like two little girls shrieking. After some investigation, we figured it out. Eagle fight. Eagle. Fight.

I have yet to actually see a coyote, but Sunday night we heard a few of them arguing over who got to raid the trash. What a terrible noise agitated coyotes make. I hope Tilly has the opportunity to kill one. Of course, for that to happen, she’d have to stand her ground instead of running away in fear. Not bloody likely.

Also Sunday, while we were eating dinner on the porch, a red tailed hawk landed on the trellis and stared us down for five minutes. Creepy and cool.

Then there’s the eight-point buck and his herd that more or less live in the back yard.

And the whole time I’ve been typing this, I’ve watched a humming bird and a bumblebee fight over the sugar water Airika put out. They keep bashing into the windows. Bumblebees. Not that smart. Hummingbirds. Possibly dumber than bumblebees.