Midwest Wildlife Safari

For those of you who do not live in the Midwestern United States, you might not be aware of all the wildlife that live around these parts. Actually, scratch that thought. I don't think that there are any species unique to just to the state I live in. Since I live in the city, I myself don't even come into contact with nature that  often, except for squirrels, rabbits, and birds. However, there are some turkeys that live in this wooded patch about a block away from my house. We used to see two or three female turkeys out at a time, and on rare occasions we'd see a Tom. A few weeks ago, though, things took quite an interesting twist.

I had stayed home from school because I had a doctor's appointment, so it was around 1 pm and just my mother and I were home. I was washing my hands at the sink in my kitchen, which has a window in front of it that overlooks my backyard. As I turned the sink off, I had to do a double take. In my back yard were 7 turkeys!! They were all hanging out at the three bird feeders my dad put in our backyard. I started screaming my mom's name, and she came running out because she thought I was hurt. But when she saw the turkeys, she got just as exited as I was. Ever since then, they've come back at least two or three times a week and just peck at our bird seed. One even flew up on top of our house. The only problem is that these turkeys are pretty fearless animals, so they have no issue going into my next door neighbor's yard, even though they have two large hunting dogs. There have been no turkey fatalities yet, thank heavens, but I'm starting to worry they'll run out of luck soon.

Even though my camera is broken, my mom managed to snap a few pictures on her Ipod of the turkeys:

Here they all are, huddled around the bird feeder!

A close-up. 

This past weekend, the plot thickened further when my dad was out on his morning jog. Out in the grass terrace in front of some apartments my dad found a baby owl! It was injured, though, and couldn't fly away. He came home and called the Humane Society, and they told  us to bring the owl in so they could rescue it. My mom went and wrapped it up in a blanket and put it in a box. She showed it to me before they departed for the Humane Society, and we snapped a few pictures of the owl. (Sorry for the blurriness, but the Ipod camera couldn't focus very well)

Here he is! We named him "Lil Guy". He was so fluffy, I wanted to pet him so bad, but I knew that wouldn't be a very good idea...

He finally opened his eyes in this picture! As you can see, he was not a happy camper. 

The Humane Society has yet to follow up with us on his condition, but if we find out how he's doing, I'll be sure to let you all know! So, do you have any interesting animal stories of your own? 

I Suck At Texting

A couple nights ago around 10:30 I was sitting in my bed relaxing after a long day, and emailing one of my friends. After a few minutes my phone started buzzing, creating a racket by vibrating my nightstand and lighting up red, altering me of the incoming message. I wearily picked up my phone and opened it up, ready to send a brusque message to the whoever bothered me. But once I saw who it was from, I nearly dropped my phone. The message was from a boy who I had had a crush on in middle school, but I had not been talking to him as much recently. I was a little disconcerted, and what made me even more confused was that it was a picture message.

I closed my eyes tight and clicked the 'okay' button so I could read the text. In little black letters across my screen were the words "Where does the probe come out?".

Where Does The Probe Come Out?

This is what I get for having a cell phone with texting enabled. I had absolutely no idea why my former crush was sending me text messages about probing, and I sat there with my mouth gaping open. My eyes popped out of my head and I threw my phone down on my bed. I was utterly and totally confused. Then I saw that the picture was of our Biology lab about frog anatomy, and the probe was sticking out of one of the frog's body parts. Nervously, I sent him a text message telling him that no, I do not know where the probe comes out, and I am sorry that I couldn't be of assistance. After that I just sat in my bed for a minute, trying to pretend like that didn't traumatize me. I suppose at this point it'd be helpful to clue you all in on the fact that I am utterly afraid that if there is ever an alien apocalypse an anal probe will be used on me. Sorry if that was TMI, but I feel like it  is an important part of this story.

Soon afterwords I turned off my phone and went to bed. I am still working to forget about that night, but so far that hasn't really been able to happen. I need closure on this, but I have no idea what to do. Any advice?

Cut Class Not Frogs

I always thought that frog dissections were only things that happened on television. It never occurred to me that I might actually have to perform one at some point in my life. Unfortunately, my Biology class is on our dissection unit, and we have to dissect frogs. The smell in our classroom this entire week has been absolutely putrid. Just imagine the smell of hundreds of dead frogs mingled with preservative and shame.

The worst part is that we had to write our name along with our partner's names on a piece of tape and wrap it around one of the frog's legs so we could identify which is ours later. Each day that we're done working on our frogs we have to put them back into a Ziplock bag. I think this wouldn't be that bad if everyone didn't have to put all the frogs in the same bag. The sight of 15 dead frogs in a big plastic bag is just gut wrenching. There are so many frogs in the bag that it won't even close, and random frog limbs are poking out all over the place. What made it even worse was this morning (first period, no less), my teacher opened up a drawer and inside there were about 10 other bags filled with dead frogs. I nearly lost my breakfast. I don't know how many more days we're going to have to work on these frogs, but I hope to God that tomorrow is the last day.

I haven't actually had to touch the frog yet, which I am extremely thankful for. I chose two lab partners that were both extremely enthusiastic about dead amphibians, which has helped considerably in my mission to not lay a finger on the dead frog. One of them was gone this morning, leaving only me and my friend Ben. The problem today was that Ben jammed one of his thumbs and he has to have a brace-thing on his hand, so he couldn't use that hand to dissect. And since he was missing the use of one hand and my other partner was gone, I actually had to be an active participant in the dissection today. Of course today was the day that we had to make an incision on the frog's leg and then tear it's skin off. Don't ask me why we had to do that, because I have no answer except my Biology teacher made me. (Note: I still didn't touch it, I made Ben do it all because I'm a terrible person who gets squeamish too easily).

If we are truly done with the dissection tomorrow, I will be the happiest girl in the world. My only other worry at this point is if we're going to have to do a Lab Practical Exam, and do part of a dissection for a grade. If that's the case, I'm probably going to fail.

Unrelated Side Note: Still no news on my Geometry test. I'm getting scared now that it's still not graded. I go to Geometry next period so hopefully I'll find out my grade then, fingers crossed! :3