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Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together On The Porch and Grooving with a Pict Here are some of Douglas' friends who come to the porch outside. First are Itsy and Bitsy, the field mice. They usually appear in the fall after dark, looking for seeds. |
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| Did you know that skunks will not spray unless they are provoked or cornered? And that they will eat cookies and other sweets? And that they have varying stripe and head patterns? And that the name "Chicago" might come from a Pottawattomie word for skunk? I've been seeing skunks on the porch since the fall of 2001. Each skunk is a different size and has a distinctive stripe pattern. The one in the first photo below, with Douglas, had two large white stripes down his back. I named him "McClurg" after a now defunct theater in Chicago that smelled terrible. In 2002, I noticed new skunks, including Hannah, a female with two small stripes (lower picture, foreground) and Paintbrush, a shy skunk with a white "mullet" on his head and a tail that looks like it's been dipped into a can of white paint (lower picture, in the back). There also was The Flying Dutchman, a mean skunk with only one eye that got into a fight with an opossum. The skunks usually arrive in September and come steadily throughout the autumn months. They really are beautiful animals.
In case you're wondering, none of the skunks have ever sprayed. But I always keep my door closed, just in case. |
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| The opossums are friendly little characters who like to chew on seeds and spit them out, and to eat marshmallows before eating the oat bits in cereal. Opossums are the only marsupials native to North America. I don't think they see too well, bro, because they don't get scared away when I watch them from the window. They visit year-round. I've seen adult opossums, baby opossums, and what has to be one of the more bizarre sights in the animal world - a mother opossum with babies in her pouch. I could see the legs and tails in the pouch. Usually I nickname the opossums after members of the Grateful Dead. This picture is from the summer of 2002 of a baby opossum I called Baby Jerry, eating Sugar Frosted Flakes. Move over, Tony! | |||||||||||||||||||
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| From somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota come the raccoons. They're cute, but raccoons are always bound to be up to no good. The raccoons can be very friendly, often coming right up to the door and looking in, and sometimes standing up on their back legs. I put out a bowl of water for them to wash their food in. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Beginning in 2003, I've seen cottontail rabbits on the porch. I was surprised to see him on the concrete porch, but there he was, eating seeds and wiggling his nose. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| "Boy, that mouse looks funny, why is his tail so short and where are his ears?" That's what I said to myself in the winter of 2005. It turned out not to be a mouse at all, it's a Least Shrew! Or as the gang on MST3K sang, "Killer Shrew, Killer Shrew, Don't know the difference between me and you. It comes out at night to give you a fright. Don't look now but he's gonna take a bite!" | |||||||||||||||||||
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Pictures of Douglas' Other Friends, Page 3 Pictures of Douglas' Other Friends, Page 4 Pictures of Douglas' Cat Friends |
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