We really need to mow our backyard. It’s not even like it’s a big backyard that would take a long time to mow. It’s tiny (we live in a townhouse). But something always comes up – have to be somewhere, rain, whatever – and it doesn’t get mowed. But I think thanks to all that grass it’s attracting the attention of critters in addition to our regular squirrels and neighborhood cats.

We’ve had caterpillars back there. Of course they started out in the front yard and were moved to the backyard by the kids. Now there is a cocoon back there and the kids are wondering which of their little “pets” it is.

Then the other day the big kids swore they saw a snake. Upon second thought they decided it wasn’t a snake after all but instead the tail of something. Ani went through an animal encyclopedia and decided it was definitely not a hedgehog, but wasn’t sure what it was. By their description it sounds like they saw the tail of a rat or a opossum.

Following the… whatever… tail there was more excitement when a turtle came to visit. Ani took tons of pictures of that little friend.

Finally, we’ve had a raccoon visit us. Ani told us there was a raccoon up on our fence. I figured she was just mistaken and had actually seen a cat since the cats are always walking on our fence. Then Sunday evening she called us to the window saying she had seen the raccoon again. Sure enough she was right.

So the big kids are quite enjoying the animals that have come to visit and we’re jokingly calling our backyard a wildlife habitat. Maybe we should just leave the grass long and see what else decides to come visit our tiny little backyard.