Garden visitors

[The Romulan Republic]

Besides the generic squirrels, birds, rats, racoons, and domestic cats, their is a long-standing infestation of small lizards around here.

Also owls and deer on occasion in the past.

[Elheru Aran]

Would a bathtub work?

I suspect you need some form of water circulation, and for something the size of your forearm like that, a larger tank than your average US standard bathtub (42 gallons at the overflow valve). You do want to be able to watch the little bugger skitter about, after all. For maximum comfort, pressurizing equipment might be called for, but that adds a whole other layer of complexity, as you're dealing with a salt-water tank to start with.

[Purple]

That all sounds... expensive. Like isn't there a budget version I could put in a small confined space, pay little for and that requires little upkeep?

[Elheru Aran]

That all sounds... expensive. Like isn't there a budget version I could put in a small confined space, pay little for and that requires little upkeep?

Pick up one of these and keep it in a terrarium, then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidiidae

[Zaune]

That all sounds... expensive. Like isn't there a budget version I could put in a small confined space, pay little for and that requires little upkeep?

Not if you want the isopod to live long, or happily. This is something you should either do properly, with all the right equipment and supplies, or not do at all.

[Purple]

That all sounds... expensive. Like isn't there a budget version I could put in a small confined space, pay little for and that requires little upkeep?

Pick up one of these and keep it in a terrarium, then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidiidae

But those aren't cute.

Not if you want the isopod to live long, or happily. This is something you should either do properly, with all the right equipment and supplies, or not do at all.

Well realistically I won't do it because frankly it's probably not legal, certainly not safe and basically just an idle fantasy. But its a bit sad that even as an idle fantasy its ruined by the fact that actually doing it would be more trouble than its worth.

[Zaune]

Well realistically I won't do it because frankly it's probably not legal, certainly not safe and basically just an idle fantasy. But its a bit sad that even as an idle fantasy its ruined by the fact that actually doing it would be more trouble than its worth.

They're not an endangered species or anything. You'd just have to be willing to invest a few thousand dollars in getting a proper aquarium for it.

[Purple]

Well realistically I won't do it because frankly it's probably not legal, certainly not safe and basically just an idle fantasy. But its a bit sad that even as an idle fantasy its ruined by the fact that actually doing it would be more trouble than its worth.

They're not an endangered species or anything. You'd just have to be willing to invest a few thousand dollars in getting a proper aquarium for it.

As I said, not worth the effort. Anything that requires more upkeep than a cat is just an idle fantasy. Plus my parents would newer allow me to bring one into the home.

[Broomstick]

Salt water aquarium setups are pretty straightforward these days, not like a few decades ago when the spouse was mixing his own sea water from fresh. You have to monitor and adjust the salt levels, and you need to sink the money into a large enough tank and filtration system, but if you're willing to do it you can have very large aquaria as a private citizen. Sure, you could do it if you had the money for the necessary equipment and really wanted to do it. Maintenance isn't daily, they really are no more trouble than cats with a modern set up.

They do, however, tend to freak out family members.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Salt water aquarium setups are pretty straightforward these days, not like a few decades ago when the spouse was mixing his own sea water from fresh. You have to monitor and adjust the salt levels, and you need to sink the money into a large enough tank and filtration system, but if you're willing to do it you can have very large aquaria as a private citizen. Sure, you could do it if you had the money for the necessary equipment and really wanted to do it. Maintenance isn't daily, they really are no more trouble than cats with a modern set up.

They do, however, tend to freak out family members.

Probably somewhat less trouble than a cat, once their enviroment is set up and maintained. No frequent vet bills, no toys,no litter boxes to change out, and no feline love children roaming round loose in the neighborhood(alternatively, no worries about having to spay him).

Still, a large pot of boiling water's much simpler. Tastier too.

[Starglider]

There is a large overgrown pile of dead tree branches in our garden, where the previous owners did some rather sloppery forestry and piled up the results to block a gap in the hedge. A vixen raised a family of fox kits under there last summer and they have been constantly playing around the house for the last 12 months. Actually knocked over several things and dug up some new plants we tried to put in. Other than that, several daily cat visitors and occasionally red deer (particularly if I let the grass get long). Really need to put proper fencing up.

[LadyTevar]

Well, one of my hometown friends just reported finding a baby possom in the middle of the road and rescuing the poor thing. This is not unusual for my friend; it's like she's drawn to baby animals in danger. Shes' so far raised to adulthood several rabbits, two chipmunks, a starling, and a grass snake. As of last night, the baby possum was eating (wet cat food) and was alert and hissing at anything, but oddly it's not playing dead like it usually would.

Note: this is in the US, so we're talking the Virginia Opossom, which in WV grows to the size of a cat. We've been teasing her about fattening it up for dinner.

[Borgholio]

Yeah I get the same thing sometimes....almost got hit by several cars trying to rescue a wounded duck from the center of the road. Was kinda stupid in hindsight since the fucker flew away while I was chasing him. Should have let him sit in the center median where he would have been safe-ish. But I hate leaving animals to suffer.

[Broomstick]

Since we've sort of diverged from gardens to critters in general...

Today my spouse was sitting in the living room in front of the computer when something touched his leg. He looked down. It was a baby raccoon with its front paws on his leg. The spouse went GWAHHHH! and jumped up. The raccoon when GWAHHHH! and ran away.

Cue the spouse and landlord chasing baby raccoon around the living room and kitchen as it ducked under and out of various furnishings and obstacles.

The baby raccoon was eventually captured and released into the wild near a pond about a half mile away from the house.

[SpottedKitty]

And bringing the topic full circle, I spotted that fox again for the first time in more than a week. Just looked out of the kitchen window as I was making lunch today, and saw its tail disappearing behind the shed. I think the sneaky critter's been there all along, the overgrown bit at the back of the garden's just so overgrown it can flop down, curl up and vanish.

[SpottedKitty]

Argleblargle. Tried to edit this into my previous post, forgot I couldn't.

On a general wildlife note, this happened in Wales earlier this week — a seagull trying to filch a snack fell into a container of curry.

The poor thing looks utterly outraged, and it doesn't seem to be in much of a better mood after washing.

[Broomstick]

My experience with seagulls is that they are pretty much pissed off and/or hungry all the time.

Saw a video of that curry gull on the TV tonight. Supposedly still smelled "spicy" the next day even with freshly cleaned feathers. Which was probably an improvement over the normal smell of gulls.

[SpottedKitty]

Heh, yes, that sounds about right. I remember a while back (must be at least 20 years ago) the family went off to a little village up the coast for a day's fishing. My uncle did a really far cast, and a seagull managed to fly into his line as it went out. We got it reeled in — we were sitting on the harbour breakwater, which... didn't help — and eventually got it unwrapped and released, but it was very loudly unhappy about the whole incident.

[Darth Nostril]

Typical Friday evening - bunch of domestic cats and dogs, an absolute shitload of suicidal bunnies, various beasties of the wingèd variety feasting on the remains of the successfully suicidal bunnies, a couple of foxes, a sheep standing in the road that I swear fucking growled at me as I went around it, a pheasant, a herd of small hairy cows, a herd of Dartmoor ponies, a deer that leapt out of the hedgerow and made a valiant effort to fling itself through my windscreen but failed because of my collision avoidance skills, a couple of feral hikers and a shade throwing badger.

The cougar in the tailored skirt suit and heels that gave me the once over and a wicked grin as I was getting out of my car probably doesn't count.

[Tribble]

Well, it's the first time I've ever seen possums in my neighbourhood, apparently they are considered an invasive species in Ontario. Oh and what appears to be an insomniac great-horned owl, as I've seen it perched on poles and flying around in broad daylight. I suppose that's something.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

They're not native to Ontario, so yes, they're invasive. Probably driven north by loss of habitat, or, equally likely, some damn fools brought some up as pets, and abandoned them to go feral and breed. Either case, maybe you could use these.

[Borgholio]

Argleblargle. Tried to edit this into my previous post, forgot I couldn't.

On a general wildlife note, this happened in Wales earlier this week — a seagull trying to filch a snack fell into a container of curry.

The poor thing looks utterly outraged, and it doesn't seem to be in much of a better mood after washing.

That is one ANGRY bird...

[Raw Shark]

The thing that shocked us the most was the smell. He smelled amazing, he really smelled good.

She makes it sound like the flying rat barely made it out of there alive...

[Zaune]

Speaking of seagulls, I watched a black-faced gull spend about ten minutes making repeated strafing runs in front of the building the other day. Never did figure out what it was attacking, there was nothing there when I went outside to look.

[Korto]

There's possums in the big melaleuca in the back yard--the bloody things steal the plums out of my tree. Ahh, what the fuck, I can share. A couple of years ago, a couple of tawny frogmouths set up a nest in the melaleuca and raised some chicks, which was pretty cool. We didn't disturb them, so I hoped they'd come back, but they haven't.
There's also a blue-tongue wandering around the backyard somewhere. How the fuck aren't those things extinct because of cats and dogs? Slow and fat--hardly seems like an ideal combination.

In my old place, next to the swamp (in the neighbouring suburb they called it the "Wetlands", but they had higher property values), we'd have the occasional visiting turtle (which drove the dog nuts--all the barking and biting in the world did sweet fuck all), I once had a baby snake in the spare room (tentatively identified by someone else who took it as a pet as a taipan), and a fully grown owl trapped between the couch and the stereo cabinet. It wasn't terribly happy. I wore great big thick motorcycle gauntlets to pull it out, and I could feel it through those gloves--it had a pretty good go at me. Fuck, that was not a happy budgie.