Another Creepy Critter

Came across another southern creepy crawly. I saw one in the house weeks ago and I had no idea what it was...I just let out a yelp, shrieked "what the h*ll are you?!?!?!" through a shoe at the wall and ran away! It was huge! There was a second and third sighting so the bug guy was called in. Found out they are harmless and around here they are called a spider cricket. I still think they are freakin' creepy! Judge for yourself:

They look like a cricket and a huge spider got together and this was their offspring. Can you tell I am not a big fan of bugs? ☺

Critters

Now, just to state the obvious, there are alot more critters down south then where I grew up. For instance, we take Toby for a walk every night, and we tend to take the same route because it conveniently loops around. About half way through our walk, we walk into a more wooded area and we went a little late last night, so it was starting to get dark.

We are moseying along and Toby steps directly on what looks like a twig in the middle of the road. I follow behind him and came upon the "twig" only to realize, that was no twig. It was small, but it was very much a copperhead snake!!!! It didn't move, so I thought it was dead, in the middle of road, could of easily been run over, wrong!!! I squint to see better (it was pretty dark at this point), while not getting too close, and the freakin' thing moves! I scream, Mike runs over, and yells at me to get away, and get the dog away, then starts to repeatedly ask me if I am sure that Toby didn't get bit. Since our goofy pup stepped directly on the thing. I was sure, the snake never moved, and besides, I pointed out that we would of heard the dog yelp. He yelps if a stiff blade of grass pokes him by surprise, hehe. Anyways, we booked it, and were sure to keep Toby out of the tall grass the rest of the walk, and kept a better eye out where we placed our feet.

If that wasn't weird enough. As most have seen, we have a balcony attached to our master bedroom. We have curtains that go over the glass doors that lead out to the balcony, so the neighbors don't get an eye-full. This morning, like I do most every morning, I opened the curtains to let the sun in for the day, and didn't pay much attention as I did so. Not until I saw Lilly (the kitty) sitting on the carpet poking at the glass. I look at what she is trying to play with to find a frog stuck on the other side of the glass..? I don't know how it got there, it's beyond me how he squeezed through the screen door, to get to the glass door, and that's after somehow getting up to the balcony. All I do know is, that he died there, stuck to the door.

I'm afraid of what I will find next.

Copperhead

Day 3 of Auntie Liz's visit, at my parents house: After we all arrive back from the Farmer's Market in Greensboro. All of us girls go out on the deck, to relax and create jewelery. Auntie Liz lugged several pounds of beads with her all the way from NH, so we thought we better make the most of this opportunity. :-) We are all picking out what we like best and begin creating away, when Beepa decides its time she went allll the way to her house, just a hop skip and a jump away...to start some deviled eggs. We bid her farewell and about a minute later we hear a faint little voice "Psssttt...I see the snake."

"What!!??" we yell.

"I see the snake." she whispers again and is pointing down at the garden.

We all drop what we are doing, run the dogs in the house, grab cameras and book it over there! Dad of course was the first to arrive on the scene, and the snake got away, was just able to squeeze back under the patio area. But dad was on a mission and wasn't going to let the snake get away again, as he did once before. So boards start flying back up and the water hose and rakes come back out. Spent quite awhile trying to "drown" the snake out.

When that wasn't working it was decided that more boards had to be pulled up...
Eventually the snake showed itself and it was caught. He wasn't too pleased with us. And we weren't too pleased with having to catch him. But with everyone and the animals...a poisoness, stubborn snake...just don't mix well, its one of those unfortunate things. Hopefully there won't be anymore, two is enough if you ask me. This one was later "released" back into the woods, in a manner of speaking. It was very pretty though.