MacGougan at Large

Notes on My Dangerous Neighborhood - 1

Critters

I am lucky enough to live in a leafy, suburban neighborhood on a hillside abutting a park-like preserve that’s under the jurisdiction of the local water authority. If you look around the place, “dangerous” is probably not the first word that will leap to your mind. To the untrained eye, it looks like the safest place in the world. 

However - and particularly with respect to men who’ve retired from sedentary office jobs - there are perils here lurking behind every arbor vitae. In subsequent columns, I’ll cover Ice, Ladders, Wasps, Tree Branches, Snow Shoveling, and Wood Chippers. As usual, we’ll end the series with a song. Today’s topic is Critters.

Being so close to what is in essence a nature preserve means we share the space with a wide variety of wild animals. Deer eat our plants - except for the gleanings they leave behind for the rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks. Raccoons excavate our garbage. Foxes pass through quickly, like celebrities who don’t want to be recognized. All this is fine and not yet dangerous.

We also get bobcats. Are they dangerous? I don’t have any statistics on this, but any cat the size of a German Shepherd gives me pause. Let me just say that, if there has been a recent bobcat sighting, we don’t let our small dog out into the yard unsupervised.

Most dramatically, we get bears. Sometimes a Papa Bear and sometimes a Mama Bear with a cub or two. Pick your poison. The Papa Bears are bigger, but there’s always a risk that you might inadvertently find yourself in between a Mama Bear and one of her cubs.

We have a bird feeder set up on a post that’s anchored by a very solid 36-inch metal spike. The last two years running, the post has been flattened by a bear, leaving the spike twisted like a pretzel and needing to be replaced. 

And lest you judge us for stocking a bird feeder in bear country, let me point out that one of these times was in mid-February, when all self-respecting bears are supposed to be hibernating, and the other time the feeder was completely empty.

So, when you come to visit, keep your head up to watch out for bobcats and bears. Only, don’t forget to look down from time to time because we do sometimes get copperhead snakes.