My apartment is right by some woods and there's a fence but it doesn't keep anything out. Luckily we rarely see anything but deer when I take Monster out. He loves to go after the deer though. I have seen an armadillo and a snake before and I've smelled skunk so I'm always on the lookout. I'm pretty sure there's been some raccoons even though I've never actually seen them. I left my trash on the porch once and it got torn through so I'm guessing it was a raccoon and I've seen other evidence of them too. The thing that worries me the most though is birds. The host of the meetup Gloria and I go too had a hawk, or some kind of big bird, grab one of his chis on Christmas last year. Luckily he was able to save it. I see lots of birds flying around here and there's probably owls out at night. So I'm always looking at the sky.
Lorena Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: [email protected] Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:31:03 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] Re: LYNN/ Carol Smet I live in an urban area but have a creek across the street, so lots of wild life. The possums are my biggest worry they are mean and destructive. One went after a much larger dog down the street from me, my neighbor saw it and went after it with a tree limb, she said it stopped and tried to charge her, until she hit it and it ran off. We were told that it probably had babies near by and that was what it was defending, at any rate, they are mean! Gloria -----Original Message----- From: moonivy2852002 <[email protected]> To: Chihuahuas <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Feb 15, 2011 10:13 pm Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] Re: LYNN/ Carol Smet Yep, good advice to heed for sure. It's unlikely Elmo could get out of my yard but I worry about what can get in so I always go out when he does. I also live in an urban area with a surprising amount of wildlife. The possums and racoons in particular are worrisome - I've seen some that are quadruple his size and he's on the large side for a chi. No iguanas here but that's sure a scary story. Glad your pet was able to be healed, Rose. -Beth "The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground." U2 Beautiful Day --- On Tue, 2/15/11, meccarose <[email protected]> wrote: From: meccarose <[email protected]> Subject: [Chihuahuas] Re: LYNN/ Carol Smet To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 4:40 PM I know what you mean about supervising our little pets outdoors. Where I live in Miami there is a canal that runs in back of our neighborhood. We've had gators, iguanas, ducks, possums, frogs, rats, sometimes come into our yard. We have the back yard entirely fenced off (chain link fence), but this doesn't stop them from coming in. My little Chihuahuas have been confronted by possums many times, usually during summer. Not little possums, but big ugly nasty ones. They like to run along the top of the fence and taunt my babies. They aren't so quick to come back once I swat them with a broom. The big black birds aren't so friendly either. I've caught them swooping down on my dogs, or taunting them from the trees, cackling and squawking at them. We have a lot of wildlife here for us being in the city. But then again, this neighborhood we live used to be their home at one time. I guess they feel we moved in on them. Luckily we haven't had any tragedies from them as yet. The worst that has happened was many years ago when we had pet iguanas. We'd bring them in the back yard every day to walk around and do their business. One day a really huge wild iguana came up from the canal into our yard and attacked one of our pet iguanas. It was no contest, the wild one was overpowering and much stronger. In the attack he just about ripped off his front arm, it was hanging and bleeding. We rushed him to the vet and amazingly they saved his arm. Sewed it back on and in a few months it was in good shape. Not as strong, but it was working. That was a $500 vet bill. I have to repeat that last sentence from the previous post.. " Predator animals and predatory birds are everywhere. " Yes.. they are. ~Rose
