Yep, Still More Critters!

Don't know that I've ever seen another zebra that was striped all the way down to his hoof-tops before! Well, as you may well know, every zebra's striping is different (just like our fingerprints). Makes it quite easy for naturalists to tell them apart.

And here we see a wild turkey, taking a leisurely afternoon amble across a suburban Ohio back yard. (No, I was not imagining things. The only Wild Turkey around was this gal!) She made the strangest noise — sort of like a kid hitting a fencepost with a stick — trying to round up her little stray. Soon thereafter, a fluttering tennis ball of downy brown fluff came a-scurrying into the shrubs after Mama, peeping to beat the band.

The other critters you're sure to see wandering through planting beds are this gang or its ilk. (that's ilk — not elk: we're not that far north!)

Nor are we far enough south that this little wallaby would normally call this area home. He (or she — I didn't invert the poor thing) is but a captor and attraction of our local zoo, enjoying the summers out of doors, and hunkering down in the den through winter.

Speaking of hunkering down in the den, these two Devon Rex cats (unrelated brothers, so to speak) sure know where home is. But apparently only one of them knows how to smile for the camera. (And, yes, the Devon Rex — like its near relation, the Cornish Rex) — was first bred as a specialty pet in Great Britain.)

Us northerners are quite used to see clusters of sparrows, robins, pigeons or even crows perched along power lines, taking advantage of warm updrafts. But it was a bit of a surprise to see that, despite their long-legged stance, herons are not averse to the same behavior. (They just waggle and wobble a lot more as they all individually maintain their own precarious balance on the high wire.)

Though the race is over and it's time to cool down while heading back to the paddock, good ol' number 8 is still a bit of a blur as it sweeps past the grandstand. This was, unfortunately, not an instance in which number 8 was Number 1.

Here, let me get that for you. Seems you've still got more thistles caught in your tail fluff. Soon as I'm done, you can check mine, OK?