Monday, July 8, 2013

The mink and the mystery mice

As we were driving into the botanical gardens complex for our pre wedding photos,a  mink darted in front of us. What does a mink crossing portend? Hopefully good luck.  I have seen only one mink in the wild before and that one was probably too big to be one (a fisher? even rarer) And weasels are much smaller and aren't uniform in color.

Minks are not nice. There is that chestnut that Man is the only animal that kills for pleasure. (Did they ever see a cat in action?) Minks apparently relish killing sprees. They even stack up their kills for all to admire, sort of like the Dexter Deer Pole. The only animal successful in killing them is the Horned Owl as other predators are in for a big battle with the minks' sharp teeth.

In the lobby of the conservatory is a stuffed massasauga, Michigan's rattle snake, with a warning that they are out and about the grounds. This thing was only about a quarter of the size of the timber rattlers I came across last week.

There was a double rainbow in the sky right after the wedding. This should offset the mink crossing. Julie stopped to look at it and a doe and twin fawns appeared at the same time. Too bad she isn't as photo happy as myself.

Late at night at home, Steve shut the lights and immediately heard mouse noises. (as he is partially deaf, these noises were loud) Was this my phone? (it does make cricket noises when a get a message) He turns on the light to investigate, nothing to see. Shuts the lights and the mice squeak. Repeat a couple of times. WTF?

Turns out that Maya had been playing with the Talking Puzzle and the guinea pig piece was missing. The puzzle has light sensors. If you block the sensor, animal noises happen. If it were the horse piece, perhaps the mystery would have been solved faster as we never had horses in the house. But we have had mice and chipmunks.

Still in training for my big ride that starts Sunday. Yesterday I went mainly downhill with the wind on my back. Does that count?

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