I think this is Burns, at least it's the only thing I remember without searching:


I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

I liked 'An fellow mortal' in that one.
I'll have to do a search if I find others because this is the only one I can remember.

I also like the Frog poem, probably my all time favorite by Emily Dickinson:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

I remember the frog one from grade school, I think, or maybe Jr high. And then there was one about a cow. I can't recall any of that one. Maybe my English Lit teacher liked animals? Some of what I learned came through osmosis. My sister had to memorize, and I was her helper/reader. Often I learned it before she did.

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

Sharon, a wonderful and informative article. Also the touch of humor rather lightens
our aggravation with some of these critters when they misbehave according to
our standards.

When we built our home, there were no animals here except for squirrels, skunks,
and rabbits. All the rest came after. We were definitely invaded. The deer were many miles away from us when we heard that they were coming out of the mountains, and invading people's gardens who lived at the foot of the mountain. I didn't think we would ever see them, but see them we do now. They are very destructive. A deer fence has
solved our problem with them for the time being.

Another factor about deer is the deer ticks which cause Lyme disease. I often think of
the children in the community with deer in the vicinity. Lyme disease can be transmitted
when the tick is in the nymphal stage, and they are so tiny. I'm not sure a parent could
see one perhaps embedded in a child's head of hair. The nymph is about the size of a
period at the end of this sentence. I dug one out of my husband's thigh thinking it was something else, and the thing began to crawl. It was too small to identify whether it was a dog tick or a deer tick. Hubby squashed it before I could say please don't. I put it in the freezer anyway, just in case I might need it someday for some remote possibility of specific id. I did use a magnifier to id it as a tick. Lyme disease can cause dreadful complications. There was also a small, flat, pink area on hubby's leg that could be confused with the beginning of an ingrown hair, which is why I was investigating it.

I think with so many over populations of deer, it is past time to relocate them to a reserve or something just to protect our children and grandchildren. Or use them as
food to combat world hunger, if they are not carrying disease.

I used to see one in the parks, etc., and say "Oh, how cute, look at that". But not any
more.

There are medications for prevention of Lyme disease if caught in the first
few hours of being embedded, but they are just not that easy to see.

Hi Shirley,

You are right about deer. Honestly I'm really fortunate to live as close as I do to the Land Between the Lakes. It's acres and acres and miles and miles of land between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, all uninhabited except for the critters who live there. The northern entrance is only a few miles from my house but the only time we see deer anywhere near here is when hunting season opens and they are running, dodging bullets. Same with a lot of the other critters around here, except for squirrels and bunnies and the occasional raccoon. And moles. A snake or two. Blackbirds. And those danged Carolina wrens that take over my bluebird houses!!

Anyway, you are right about deer ticks and Lyme disease, too.
I appreciate your warnings. It pays to be very cautious.

Thanks for reading the article, I really appreciate your contribution to the comments.
And I envy you those mountains!!

This was great. I especially liked your grandmothers extra lettuce patch for bunnies.

Thanks Jo!
Whatever it takes to keep the bunnies away and it actually worked.

I forgot about the deer ticks, but now that I will be outside more, I have to be aware of them. For some reason, they love me -- I don't think I look like a deer, but the ticks must have poor eyesight! Several years ago, each day after I had been working out in the yard before I took my shower, DH would do a tick check on my back. Then I have to endure the chiggers, which I haven't forgotten about! They love me, too!

Ah, me too! The only things that's keep the ticks low now is drought, but they're still around. I gotta find the sulfur dust in the shed and get out some repellent. Don't know for sure the sulfur dust works on ticks, but a park ranger taught us about the sock full of sulfur dust, put on shoes, socks and lower pants. Watched a PBS show about the poisonous frogs, snakes, spiders, scorpions, jellyfish, etc., they collect these natural venoms and scientists find they contain very important medical uses for parts of them that the actual toxic ingredient can be removed from. Amazing! The sad part is some of these creatures will probably go extinct soon because of what we're inadvertantly poisoning THEM with.

A vicious cycle, isn't it, Linda.

Deer ticks here too, Jean. In abundance.

Sharon do you (or anyone here) know what the heck this is all about? I found the picture on Pinterest, followed the link to the blog hoping to find out "What's the deal with the upside down pots?" And, UNlike usual, I did find words to go with the picture. I repinned with the text I clipped from the blog. But I still don't understand WHY it would work??? Has anyone seen/heard of it before?

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/8...

No idea, Critter, I have absolutely no idea why that would work.
I'll search around on the net, but I've never heard of it either. I'll let you know if I find something.

Do that if you're interested enough, but don't work that hard just for me!

It's made me curious, I just can't see the point of it.

That was my thinking.....
Something she got handed down in her family (or someone else), maybe?
But the fact that she says it's WORKING.......
??????

Like a scarecrow maybe??
I have no idea at all how that could work.

Me neither....

A very good article... and timely. A possum has taken up residence under our porch. My husband doesn't like the idea of it staying and last night talked again about trapping/releasing it across the river. Maybe I'll try a couple of things, starting with putting out glass bottles for the wind to blow across.

I wonder if lemons will work for cats in the winter, since we will get below freezing. I had bought some Orange essential oil to put around where they've been, but haven't done it yet. One of my children gave the feral cat a good fright a couple of weeks ago. Those we would be happy to shoot, but the neighbor got mad because he thinks they catch mice. :/ We had a female Kestrel here last winter and she did a great job of that being programmed to specifically hunt small rodents.

The only time we had a raccoon was in the yard was when we planted sweet corn. The next time we did that, we put up an electric fence, but then the corn smut got it.

Maybe you just weren't meant to plant sweet corn, Kim. I guess that could happen sometimes.

Now I'll tell you the truth, I really don't like possums. Those silly things play dead, they hiss, they grumble, they snarl and they grab your broom and take it away from you, usually after climbing up the broom handle to get a little closer so their squinty little eyes are looking right at yours. I do not like possums. It could be their naked tails, I don't know, but they are just not my favorites.

I can't provide you with any reasonable answer. It might be wise to put 2 rivers between you and it.

Actually, I should have realized I was not meant to plant sweet corn when the neighbor came over one spring and asked if we planned on doing so. We had hoped to, but then he told us Monsanto was planting a test field of corn across the road from us and no other corn was to be within a thousand feet of theirs. I think Monsanto was there for three years with their corn... (Every other year, when the surrounding farmers were growing beans.)

My husband has trapped and released a couple of possums across the river. It's been awhile since we had any. Did you know they eat a lot of ticks? Scientists estimate they eat about 5,000 a year because they are so meticulous about their grooming. This is one good reason to have them around, if only we could be sure our rabbits are safe.