REVISED...Strange Pets

[Janice]

Ok, no dogs or cats unless they have two heads or 6 legs.
What is the strangest pet you have had or showed up in your yard.
Only at your home or yard.
This iguana appeared twice in our yard. Once in the front yard in a tree and about a week later in the backyard by the pool. He is the same color as the trees, so he could still be out there somewhere high up in a tree.

[wxcrazytwo]

a scorpion right at the foot of my door, and it was freaking huge and black..

[Miss Mary]

We had torrential downpours once on our street and our builder did not grade several backyards properly. So they filled up with feet of water. That stood around for a while. Long enough for two ducks to call it their new home. They come back occasionally, waddling all over the neighborhood looking for their 'pond', which is of course dried up usually.

At one time we had a possum that hung out in a small section of woods in my back yard, 10 feet deep that runs the length of my backyard. He would eat the seed I put out for the squirrels, so they wouldn't climb the bird feeder. The possum would sit and eat the corn.

We had deer run thru our back yard at times.

And finally, I kept hearing about a resident chicken on the street. A group of mom's at the oppisite end of my street talked about this chicken. Said he must have escaped from a truck once, bound for slaughter. He lived in a window well, of a house behind my neighbors. She'd see him popping his head out and up he'd jump, pecking and looking for food. I thought they were all crazy! Then I babysat for this neighbor once and sure enough, there was the chicken. It was actually a rooster I think! I told her later, hey I saw your chicken! She said - and you thought I was making that up or drinking too much? LOL

Never did find out what happened to the chicken. But the 2 ducks still come back. Every year.

Mary

[Lindaloo]

I do have a funny story. Last Wednesday evening when I was coming home after looking for my horses, I heard a thump and saw feathers. I thought, "Aw I hit a bird" Well I went about a mile down the road and I heard a cooing noise. I turned on my dome light in the van and there was a HUGE owl sitting in the passenger seat. He was just sitting there. lol. I did not panic and kept driving but was thinking, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" LOL!! When I got to my house I just left him in the van, but gave him some bird seed and water. He ate and drank. I called the game warden the next morning and they came and picked him up. The game warden said he took a right turn when he meant to make a left turn.

[GalvestonDuck]

Awwwwwww....

Owls are cute!

[Janice]

What a great story, Lindaloo..... Maybe it was someone from your past coming back to see you, eerie.....

[TexasStooge]

I do have a funny story. Last Wednesday evening when I was coming home after looking for my horses, I heard a thump and saw feathers. I thought, "Aw I hit a bird" Well I went about a mile down the road and I heard a cooing noise. I turned on my dome light in the van and there was a HUGE owl sitting in the passenger seat. He was just sitting there. lol. I did not panic and kept driving but was thinking, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" LOL!! When I got to my house I just left him in the van, but gave him some bird seed and water. He ate and drank. I called the game warden the next morning and they came and picked him up. The game warden said he took a right turn when he meant to make a left turn.

LOL! Funny but cute story.

[Miss Mary]

Linda - all I have to say is - that owl knew a kindred spirit when he saw one - YOU! I would have been thinking Oh my gosh too! But how could you shoo him out, the poor fella!

You sure have a kind heart. Many brownie or saint points saved for you in Animal Heaven (and I believe there is one), my friend....

Mary

[Meso]

We had a few tortoises at one stage

[BettyBoop]

My fiance and I ended up being "foster parents" to a 3 week old squirrel last year. We live in FL, and Frances blew it right out of its nest. We heard her crying all night but it was too dark and stormy to find her, however, the next morning she was still crying and we finally found her. We named her "Roxie" (female Rocky) because she was such a fighter. We had her for 3 months till she died from unknown causes. It was amazing watching her grow up, especially because they do it so fast compared to humans. We miss her but we feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have her in our lives.

[DaylilyDawn]

Many years ago we had a soft shelled turtle come crawling across our back yard. This thing was as big as a turkey platter at thanksgiving. My hubby tried to catch it and the turtle drug him under a barbed wire fence until my hubby let go of the turtle.

[Skywatch_NC]

It was either when I was in pre-school or K...but while living in Cincinnati...one time a box turtle showed up in our yard...during a snowstorm! Not sure where the fella went after we saw him but must have found his hibernation burrow somewhere...as we never saw him again.

Also, now living in a townhouse with a golf course and woods behind us...my folks and I have seen some deer from time to time nibbling on tree leaves.

Eric

[GrimReaper]

Anybody who lives in Florida would appreciate this one. A banana spider wove her web inside our screened pool one year, and I had the brilliant notion just to leave it there to catch bugs. We named her "Charlotte" ofcourse. It was a great learning experience for "Little Grim", as she loved to watch Charlotte scramble down her huge web everytime a bug landed....then one day I realized my daughter was actually FEEDING the spider... she would catch moths, small grasshoppers and such and throw them into Charlotte's web!! Did you guys know that spiders actually shead their skins like reptiles do as they grow larger??? I didn't know that. Well Charlotte grew to be the biggest banana spider I have ever sceen, much bigger than the span of my hand. I felt sorry for the little guy that decided to become her man.... he must have been confident, because Charlotte had a bunch of babies!!

[kkcool]

Oddly enough I have a lot of animal stories but I'll limit this post to only two.

The sweetest: Our last apartment was right on a pond. A momma duck and her 7 babies got into the habit of following me whenever they saw me outside. Obviously, I was feeding them (the apt. complex didn't mind). Food or no, there's nothing like the feeling of sitting down on my back porch and having 7 little ducklings waddle up the hill to sit at my feet. The amount of trust was unnattural!! I wish I had the ability to post the picture my husband took of me sitting on the ground surrounded by little ducks. I miss my babies soooo much!!

The weirdest: About 2 years ago I was sitting on my back porch (different apt. complex) and heard this noise in the underbrush. It sounded too big to be a lizard and too small to be a racoon. I got up and tried to locate the source of the noise while safely staying on my porch. Boy, was I surprised when my mystery animal walked under the light. It was a hamster!!! I put a box over him and went and got my husband out of the shower. Hubby grabed him up and he spent that night in a box. (the hamster, not my husband!) The next day we got him a cage. We named him Swanson after the frozen dinners because it was around Nov. and getting cold at night. We figured that if he wasn't rescued by us he would have been some other animals frozen dinner. I am happy to say that Swanson is still part of the family.