slithering

A few months ago, installing a doggie door seemed like such a great thing to do. I grew tired of the cats scratching at the front window, demanding to be let in. Or out. Or back in again. The same story for Dahlia and the back door. I began to feel like they were demanding too much of me. So, we installed the doggie door.

And now Coleridge brings in anything and everything he catches. Remember the robin? Well, that was a pleasant surprise compared with today's little number:

Aah!!!

I do not like snakes. Especially in my house. At least I was right there when he brought it inside, and I didn't find it later coiled around Liam's leg or something.

But still. It was a snake. In my kitchen.

I snapped a quick picture, then swished it to the laundry room and out the back door with a broom.

Then I googled it. To be sure there wasn't a poisonous snake now lurking in my backyard.

Turns out he was a harmless worm eater. A Prairie Ringneck Snake.

I found a great Arkansas snake identification page called Herps of Arkansas. Apparently, there are a lot of snake varieties in our area. This is making me even more squeamish than the little one in the kitchen. There are a lot out there...

oh, birds

Our cats are hunters. Coleridge especially. I know this is just a part of his nature, but when we added a doggie door to give the pets free access to come in and out of the house as they please, we altered the natural balance and, apparently, are just begging for their trophies to be dragged inside.

Earlier in the week, Cole brought in a still-flapping mourning dove, bringing it right up to me for my approval. Before that it was a little black bird, that I found Dahlia munching in the living room. A few weeks ago, a squirrel, on our couch...

This is becoming quite the problem fast. I am afraid I'll find Liam playing with the carcass of whatever their next catch is.

So, when I saw feathers all over the laundry room floor this morning, I knew what I was looking for, and I began to make the rounds so I could find it and dispose of whatever kind of bird it used to be, before Liam woke up.

I scanned the floors, and was surprised to look up in the bathroom

and find a robin perched on the windowsill,

eyeing me as if I were the intruder.
Aside from some crooked wing feathers, he seemed to be okay.

Here's Gabriel, doing his manly duty, and setting the robin free outside.

I have a ridiculous apprehension when it comes to birds.

They frighten me.

On that note, we brought home 10 baby chicks today, which we're hoping will mean lots of eggs in the not-too-distant future. More on that later. I haven't taken pictures yet, and I'm avoiding a messy kitchen as I type...

Go ahead...

make yourself comfortable

in the middle of the kitchen floor...

Hopkins is known for curling up and sprawling out in the strangest of places, usually somewhere involving heavy foot traffic.

No. I don't usually keep a blanket on the kitchen floor. The blanket was on the floor for Liam to have a warm place to play with some toys while I made dinnner (our tile is cold in the winter...). Hopkins stretched out while we were all sitting at the table.