Out here in “the sticks,” as many of the locals like to refer to it, we’re lucky enough to have daily encounters with all of the awe and the beauty that is Mother Nature.

As a matter of fact, Mother Nature regularly makes her way into our back porch at night, in the form of a hungry opossum. ‘Possum likes to gorge himself on the pet food we store there. Once, noting that Charlie was particularly interested in the dog food container, Cedric lifted the lid, and nearly lost a hand to The Jaws of Death. Seriously, have you seen the mouth on those things? It resembles something of a crocodile mouth, with millions of spiky, vicious-looking teeth. We courageously waited in the house, until it scuttled out a few hours later.

And just the other day, we were innocently walking in the “Nature Park” with our precious child when we experienced an encounter of the 1st kind (Mother Nature tries to eat you alive). So, we were walking along the trail, minding our own business, chatting about how lame all the people who read our blog are (oh but I’m witty!), and whatnot. I thought little of the coil of black flexible pipe on the side of the trail. But then the coil unrolled itself and revealed its true nature: an enormous six-foot-long black King snake! Yes, the dreadful creature was big enough to eat the baby. Fortunately, he apparently wasn’t hungry and slithered off into his slimy underworld, leaving us unharmed.

And of course, there is the bounty Lady Nature offers to our cats. Everyday, they bring home a macabre collection of small, deceased animals. Squirrels, birds, mice, shrews, locusts, rabbits, bats (and others I’m probably willfully forgetting) have all met their end in the jaws of our cats. The cats kindly share their catches with us – I often open the bedroom door in the morning to a mini-murder scene (a psychopathic one, at that). Tiny, stiffened corpses, guts strung down the hallway, a head here, a leg there and always, always – a skillfully removed, intact liver – the killer’s signature, if you will. Sorry, was that too gruesome an image? Just be thankful you don’t find that in your house in the morning!

Then just last night, I found myself dreaming about that oh-so-bizarre creation of Nature – the skunk! Yes, I could almost smell the malodorous beast as well as if it had been spraying its noxious perfume in my bedroom. Somehow I awoke, initially relieved, then I realized – Oh HELL it still smells. I was sure the skunk must be in the house, so terrible was the stench. My stomach threatened to spew forth my late night snack. I tried to find relief by burying my face into the pillow, to no avail. I felt I would die (I am sensitive to smells). Alas, another sleepless night – this time not even caused by the baby! This morning I determined the source of the odor – poor little Kitty. He’d learned the hard way about the skunk’s defense mechanism. Now we can’t even stand to be in the same room with him.

Living in the city, it was easy to forget that it’s a great big wild world out there. Here, Nature keeps us on our toes, ever threatening to eat our babies (and let’s not forget our pet food!) and stain our pristine berber carpeting.

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