Someone Wants In
Posted on August 21, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments

And to be fair, it’s warm and humid outside. I want to be inside, too. However, if I let this critter in, the chances that it’ll be hugged by one of the cats’ teeth in the very near future approaches certainty. It’s probably better where it is. Pretty specimen, though.
Hope you’re having a fine Saturday.
— JS
“Please let me in, they’re spraying my field! Sanctuary!!”
My dogs brought me a pigeon today. Right up to my bed, where I lay quietly sleeping. Bless their hearts.
Pigeon was fine and has been released. Dogs are sad.
Yes that would become a toy for the kitties. Been busy today preparing for Henri to arrive. I am supposed to work tomorrow night too. Should be interesting.
Suddenly I see exactly where the design for Jiminy Cricket (Disney version) came from. Even if that’s no cricket…
Genus Melanoplus, I think; which species is a matter for an expert (the genus is firmly in the “some disassembly required” camp when it comes to that level of identification — there are more than 300!).
You put that picture on the cover of a novel and I’d buy it without even reading the blurb on the inside of the dust jacket!
Where we live, those are called “Kitty Klondikes” after the ice cream treats so popular with the 2-legged staff.
Down here we call them Lubber Grasshoppers. I really don’t want to see more of them this year; we had a bad infestation of them this year.
They are damned hard to kill, if you treat your yard they just move away and come back when the neighbor does the same.
I had half a dozen green peppers waiting to be made into stuffed peppers. Went out to get them and all I found were two of those monsters. I got angry with them then.
My work office has had a praying mantis show up to perch on our windows (and once on the door frame like a demented hanging doorbell) on multiple occasions now; not sure if it’s the same one each time or not, but you’d think it wouldn’t happen once, let alone more than once. Maybe he was looking for critters like your grasshopper?
My cabin is currently dog and cat free, so the deer feel they have the run of the place. Roger, Fiddy, and young Spike have lost their velvet and are looking rather rakish. Fiddy was in the kitchen last month, but he only stares through the window now.
@Dawn our dogs brought in a cockatiel, we never found an owner, she was uninjured, and she’s been living in our living room for around 3 years now.
…and all I can hear is Richard Kind saying “The circus! The circus!”
Oh, I’ve seen this!