saddle up!

 More beautiful caterpillars!  I'm in love!

stinging rose caterpillar

saddleback caterpillar

Both of these guys are "no touch 'ems."  These little spines are full of venom that will break off in your skin if you make contact...especially the saddleback caterpillar.  The pain has been described as "electrical" and can last for hours.  Rash, headache, and nausea are common side effects, and some people going into anaphylactic shock and/or hemorrhage. To be safe...just leave them alone!  

I also found this Orgyia definita...

...more brown-hooded owlet caterpillars...

And look at this guy!  It's the caterpillar for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly.  It's an incredibly common butterfly but I've never seen the caterpillar before!

I love caterpillar hunting in the fall.  

Some other fall insects...I'm afraid my pumpkin crop has been pretty much ruined by squash bugs.

Todd cleaned them off and I've been able to salvage a few for the porch!

The mantises are out and about.  I was cutting down the perennial garden and noticed a pile of butterfly wings, all different sorts.

It could be the work of birds, who tend to have favorite perches...but this gal is the likely culprit.

This time of year they're big, hungry, and likely pregnant.

It's extraordinarily difficult to cut down plant stalks that loom 4' above my head, knowing that a ginormous mantis might be clinging to one, but so far I've been lucky.

Cicadas are still singing...

a lucky catch!  Linne's cicada

...and the deer are out in force, eating as much as they can before winter.  This buck has been hanging around our barnyard.

When I got a little closer to him, I could see why.  Do you see how swollen his left hoof/ankle is?  It's hoof rot...again.  It's not very common, but the bacteria is definitely around here somewhere.  This is the second deer affected - that we've seen - this year. 

We haven't had too many changing leaves yet, but definitely some interesting discoloration.  A sign of the advancing season?

There's SOME color, of course!

Inside, the cats are soaking up every bit of late-summer sun...

And our formerly sweet, quiet Pepita, who is approaching sexual maturity and is coursing through with hormones, has become quite a rambunctious little girl!

No, she doesn't want to take naps.  No, she doesn't want to play with the same old toys two days in a row.  No, she doesn't want to be in her playpen.  No, she doesn't want to respect the cats' space...most of the time.

At least this is a temporary phase...and we can finally say that she's pretty much potty trained!  She's only had a handful of accidents in the three months we've had her, and she's learned to give me "the stare" when she's ready to go out.

She stares, I query, and then she gives an excited shake.  There, we have communicated!  

Just a few more months until she settles down.  :)  Until then, she's running off that energy!

Have a great week!  

the cave dwellers

Last week was freakishly hot and humid...and this week was almost like fall.  Pepita spent a lot of time rolling on the ground outside and I felt like doing the same!  While keeping a sharp eye out for ANYTHING changing colors/looking like a sign of fall...

...I also enjoyed the last of the mid-summer flowers.  

Guys, you're facing the wrong way!  The garden's over there!

Another sign of the advancing season...tiger bee flies are back!  Telltale signs include white drips on the porch...

...larvae cases sticking out of carpenter bee holes on the upper portion of the deck...

...and, of course, the bees themselves.

They hatch, they mate...

terrible cell phone pic

...and they're gone. 

Lots of wasps are making nests right now.  We've got paper wasps building nests on the porch and in some of our bushes...

...and grass wasps carrying long strands of vegetation into pre-drilled holes for nesting.

Cooler weather gives me a great opportunity to actually be outside...and see things!

raccoon print in the mud

eastern box turtle shell

a skipper

Todd's and my 17th anniversary was this past week.  We decided to go to Bluespring Caverns and take the longest underground boat tour in the U.S.!  I got a photo of our walk deep into the cavern...

...but unfortunately, a cell phone that takes fairly terrible pics in broad daylight is not going to do well in a dark cave.  Oh, well!

At home, Frances is finally reaching his potential as the fat, lazy cat I knew he could be if he just put in the work.

Of course, he's earned his rest...he works hard at keeping Pepita in line, mostly by sitting on her leash so that she's unable to move.

He is a great  partner in crime to the Barnacle (what we call Barnabas 90% of the time), too.

Still not allowed on the dining room table, not that they care much about that!

Pepita is still learning "Be nice to the cats!"  She sees them as romping partners, or maybe big squeaky toys.  

the side-eye

It will just take time.  This whole experience is definitely teaching me patience.  Oh...and SOMEONE took a very important test recently.  It turns out that Pepita is NOT an Australian Shepherd...not even a little bit.

(Her "supermutt" is Australian cattle dog, chihuahua, pug, collie, and German shepherd)

It's probably a good thing.  We rather impulsively adopted her without considering the breed.  I read belatedly that Australian shepherds are incredibly high-energy, tend to bark, can be suspicious of those outside the family...I'm glad that our lower-energy people-loving mutt is exactly who she is.

Have a great week!   

squirmy wormies

It's prime season for insects!  It's been too hot (and I've been too busy) to get out with my camera much, but I've seen some great specimens close to home.

soldier beetle...a great pollinator!

scorpionfly...this is a female and she doesn't have the cool scorpion tail that males have!

big group of aphids on the milkweed!

sweat bees

honey bees...look at those beautiful wings!

We have a new resident on the front porch.

chinese mantis

He's getting bigger and bigger...

...molting regularly.

There are plenty of moths around our porch lights to feed an army of mantises, so he's picked a good place to hang out!

It's not too late in the season for baby birds...

red-winged blackbird babies in our front pond

...and new flowers are blooming, like this milkweed.

Lots came up in the garden this year and I love it!

In the woods, blackberries are ripening...

...and woodland hydrangeas are starting to flower.

We're mostly INSIDE, though, with these lazy cats.

Barnabas

Frances

Pepita is doing really well with cat introductions.

All the cats are making an effort...even Calliope!

Pepita is having some adventures...

daily pond walks

fierce feats of strength

intense Daddy snuggles

...but she's spending a lot of time like this, unfortunately:

The vet couldn't fit her in for almost three weeks after the adoption, and when they finally saw her, they determined that she was crawling with parasites (despite frequent wormings).  Right now, she has giardia and hookworm.  Because she'd just had a flea treatment, we can't even give her the hookworm medicine for another week.  She's getting two doses of antibiotics daily for the giardia, but reinfection is SO easy.  I have to bleach her crate daily.  Water and food dishes have to be treated with boiling water daily.  Her bedding (including car blanket) has to be washed every other day, and so do all of her toys.  The floors have to be mopped daily and the carpets have to be vacuumed.  When she goes potty, we have to pick up everything and treat the location with diatomaceous earth (to kill the hookworms/giardia parasites that would otherwise worm their way into the soil and instantly reinfect her).  We have to wash our hands CONSTANTLY, because humans can catch giardia (although it's unlikely).  In short, everything has to be spotlessly clean and she cannot go around other dogs, because she'd infect them. 

We had to reschedule her puppy class and we're sad that we can't do our planned socialization around town.  Hopefully she'll get a clean bill of health at her next vet visit in two weeks, because I've read horror stories about puppies having giardia for MONTHS and needing constant antibiotics (and constant cleaning to prevent reinfection).  It's daunting but we're really hoping for the best.  The good news is that she's cheerful and active and shows no signs of being infected...that's a good sign!  We really want to expand her house boundaries but every room she goes into has to be deep-cleaned daily, so she's going to have to wait for the vet's go-ahead.  

Thankfully, giardia transmission from dogs to cats is rare.

Off to do MORE cleaning before work.  Have a great week!