Oh, I'd Slither Across the Floor and I'd Slip Under the Door

Yesterday, Mom spotted whales from our kitchen window. We live about a half mile above the beach, but there they were...two whales spouting far out in the Bay. We got the binoculars out and Mom was even able to see one surface for a moment. I saw its side flash as the sun hit upon its back. We decided to run down to the beach and see if we could get a better look at them.

Mom ran ahead because even though she has stubby legs like Nae and I, she is somehow able to make them fly. Out on to the bluffs she ran, through a field of lupines that smelled like sweet jasmine tea as they were crushed beneath our feet, with me a minute or two behind her. She was already out at the point as I came up the path through the eucalyptus trees. I was watching the path as I walked because there were a bunch of rhino-like beetles scurrying in front of me. I was nearly to the point, when in mid-step I spotted a snake peaking out from the brush! I jumped over it and moved as far out on to the point as I could. I did a little yelp of "snake" in midair and Mom couldn't believe that she must have walked passed it without even noticing. We scanned the Bay up and down for a few minutes before Mom eventually spotted the whales and we saw the great bursts of water shooting out from their blow holes twice, but our minds were completely focused on that snake and how we were going to get passed it to get home. Mom and I weighed the pros and cons of going first (Maybe it will strike at whoever passes first?) versus going second (Maybe the first person passing it will piss it off so that it strikes at the person coming next?) before Mom told me that I could go first. I took a few steps closer to the snake, took a couple deep breaths, and leaped over it. Mom started freaking out "Oh Gawd D, now it's doing the tongue thing!" She was psyching herself up to run passed, but every time it would flick it's tongue she'd chicken out. Finally, she ran and jumped over it, screaming as she went and I nearly peed myself laughing at her.

When we got back to the house, we went out back to tell Dad all about what he had missed. I then went to check on something and Mom started watering some plants, when all of a sudden I heard her shriek, "Oh yuck, she's got something!" I went out back and, sure enough, there was one of my sister's cats, Sparticus, with a very large and very dead gopher in her mouth. She proceeded to carry her kill under our back outside stairs and devour the gopher in a matter of minutes. Too bad we think she caught it in the heather fields across the street and not in our yard, where a gopher or mole has been wreaking havoc for the last two weeks!

After not seeing any wild animals besides birds for weeks, yesterday was certainly a lucky day.