Creatures are making appearances

MOTHER Nature continues to bring new creatures into our lives.

They just don't seem to stick around very long.

Before adding on to a shed we had some excavation work done. Weinadvertently left a low spot that accumulated water over thewinter.It became one of the finest toad hatching spots in this part of thecountry.I'm sure I learned about the great numbers of offspring that someof our smaller animals produce - queen ants laying thousands ofeggs,fish laying hundreds - but until you see it firsthand, it is hard tocomprehend the magnitude of this biological process.First, in what is basically a large mud puddle, there appeared arather long translucent coil with hundreds of tiny black eggs evenlyspaced throughout. Then the tadpoles emerged.We had the makings of a toad empire. I say "had" because warmweather dried up some of the empire and, unfortunately for thetoads,I siphoned off the bulk of the water with a garden hose. It was oneof those great moments in life when you say to yourself, "So, thisiswhy they teach physics in school."Repeated rainstorms managed to refill the puddle and revive thesurviving tadpoles, turning each attempt to siphon into an adventurein possible tadpole swallowing.I escaped unharmed, but I can't say as much for the tadpoles thatdried up in our yard.The crayfish who showed himself recently did not fare very well,either.I hadn't seen a crayfish in years until a couple of weeks ago whenI saw two of them on the same rainy day - one on my lunch hour intheparking lot of a Chinese restaurant (nobody ever accused crayfish ofbeing smart) and one off of our back porch when I returned home.I tried to explain to the one at home that our cats would probablynot be too happy with his presence, but he resisted my attempts toreturn him to our creek.There had been no other signs of him or his kind until last nightwhen I pulled in the driveway to find a single crayfish claw on ourback p orch. Finding animal parts and dead animals on our back porchis not out of the ordinary for us. In fact, it has become theshowroom for our prized hunter, Spook. The unusual thing about Spookbringing us assorted wildlife is that she is our smallest cat. Shebrought home two chipmunks recently that were almost as big as sheis.While she likes to share her catch with us, Spook can be impatientabout getting praise. I walked out of the house after changingclothes to find she had deposited a second claw on the porch, as ifto say, "Hey, I brought you some more since you didn't see theinitial offering."Just last week I found a rather large gray squirrel dead in ourfront yard. I'm not a big fan of squirrels, since I have fought themfor years as they dig, pillage and leave their cache in flower beds,but we rarely see any on our place. Maybe it's the dogs, maybe it'sthe cats, who knows. I'd like to give Spook credit for this kill,thinking she dragged the carcass that was twice her size as close asshe could get it to the porch before giving up.Besides, the dogs were probably too busy chasing down deer ortrying to outsmart a groundhog that lives on the hill behind us.For now, at least, the groundhog is winning.If Mother Nature wants to make a trade, I will gladly put the catsand the dogs where they cannot get to field mice, moles, chipmunks,squirrels, deer and the like.All she has to do is take away the flies.