Wild Kingdom

Before I begin my latest bizarre, wild kingdom story, I need to give some background on where I live. I live less than 10 miles from downtown Pittsburgh in a typical suburban neighborhood with a typical suburban mall right down the road. I have no actual land to speak of (although my husband is desperately trying to convince me that life on a farm would be fun), but only the typical 50 by 120 plot of land that the developer divided out in the early 50's. There is a small patch of trees in the back of my yard where several properties come together. I would not go so far as to call this an actual woods, though. Since we moved here in 1996, little bits of wildlife seem to be making their way back into the neighborhood. We had 5 deer living in our backyard (literally) two summers ago as well as a group of wild turkeys. I also saw a mother duck leading 7 baby ducklings down the street this summer much like the book Make Way for Ducklings. We have no actual bodies of water around here so my best guess is that they're living in the odd creek/run-off which runs next to a fairly major road at the bottom of my hill. Fascinating and fun when you have two small children.

As many people in the suburbs can relate, we have approximately 1 million rabbits living in the neighborhood (give or take 999,000). Where there are rabbits, there are often predators that come right behind them. Two summers ago, I watched a hawk swoop down right in front of me, grab a mouse out of my backyard, and keep flying into the tree area of my yard. Although it was one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed, I was slightly concerned since I had a three month old at the time, and the hawk looked capable of grabbing her as well. Anyone who has seen a hawk, knows what I am talking about.

I hadn't seen the hawk this summer and was feeling good about hanging out in the backyard again. Yesterday, I noticed an odd thing in my side yard - it looked like some fur and a backbone of something. Being completely paranoid, I immediately think someone is sacrificing animals in the neighborhood for some bizarre reason or another. I called to my husband since this clearly falls into the category of "Husband must take care of without assistance of wife." After investigating the remains and cleaning it up, he informs me that the hawk must still be in the neighborhood. Our animal expert friends have all told us that a hawk will leave just some feathers and bones from a bird or just some fur and backbone of a rabbit. I guess I'll have to keep a closer eye on our puppy Jenna when she is in the backyard. Maybe not after her incident yesterday (see Jenna Aleu post for details).