National ...no, wait. Greene County Geographic.

Wildlife encountered during recent stewardship of Lothlorien:

1. A gaggle? flock? school? of wild turkeys, noisily crossing the driveway.

2. A surreptitious frog, lurking by the water spigot.

3. An arguably ancient and housebroken Basset Hound with wanderlust, trespassing on the driveway.

4. A hungry goat who likes to (a) eat grass that isn't his, (b) be petted and (c) headbutt people when they tell him "no."

5. Approximately 3 dozen Japanese Beetles, voraciously dining on the rosebushes. They were slain. (Slow, slow painful deaths.)

6. One of the largest skinks I've ever seen.

7. The ever-elusive Gracie cat, so rarely glimpsed in her natural habitat - as she thought for just a moment that I was her Mommy, and then realized the trickery! trickery!