Weather and critters

The humidity has finally dissipated, though the temperature is still on the high side. The past four days have been oppressively hot and humid; today will be lovely by comparison. I took this screenshot from my AccuWeather toolbar this morning before someone realized that 89F might not really be a temperature one should call "colder", even compared to 98F from yesterday.

The wildlife keeps showing up in the yard. The snapper wasn't here yesterday, but she had come back three mornings in a row. Still no evidence of eggs, PopPop thinks the soil in the garden is too hard for her. At about 3:30pm yesterday I was on the deck, hoping to catch even the tiniest breeze, when I saw a beautiful gray fox making his way past the arborvitae toward the house. Knowing Lucille hides in the arborvitae, I told the fox that this behavior would not do. He thought about that for a moment, then obligingly turned around and trotted back to the woods. I'm wondering if s/he might be the offspring of the fox I saw two summers ago. Regardless, this one was big and healthy.

The cats have been very flat these last few days, it's too hot for them to do much of anything. Last night, Ebony was laying in front of the porch door when, at about 9pm, she jumped up and started posturing. She is known as a hisser and a tail wagger, but this was different. Then I heard the outdoor water dish dragging and knew something was up. By the time I got the lights on and stuck my head out the door, the enormous raccoon that was into the water had moved down to the lower deck. He was another big, beautiful animal. Chubba had been laying under the bench not two feet from the water dish the whole time, completely unfazed by the raccoon. At least this one seems healthy enough, he's out at night and isn't aggressive.

Then half an hour later, going out to help Queenee with her purse, I almost stepped on one of the garden toads, a big fat one. That would have grossed me out for a good long time.

Does life get more exciting than this?