June 18, 2024

The Good, The Bad, & The Weird

Living in the Keweenaw is a true privilege. But as everyone knows, with privilege comes great responsibility.

Take, for example, these fawn siblings. Mike and I found these two babies in our yard a few years ago. We had to keep Daisy — our curious and overzealous pug — away from them. Not as easy as it sounds, folks!

For years, the two deer would visit our yard throughout the seasons. Then, it was only one deer. Now… well, neither deer. I understand the whole circle of life philosophy, but I don’t have to like it.

Then, last year, we had about a dozen turkeys who decided to roost in one of our trees.

After that, we had an “infestation” of flying squirrels. Yes….flying squirrels! Mike live-trapped ELEVEN of them, mostly one by one, and relocated them several miles away in a lovely, wooded uninhabited area. He put almost 1,000 miles on our jeep doing this!

We have a resident owl in one of our 100-year-old pine trees who likes to hoot it up early every morning, but we love him. We’ve had little tree frogs on our door, turtles in the yard, gray, red, and black squirrels all over — you name it. We even had a little wren that would fly to our living room window and “knock” on it.

But last month, we had a different class of company. Actually… squatters. A mother raccoon decided to nest in an upstairs space in our carriage house.

She proceeded to give birth and raise her kits for a several weeks. We just avoided her and waited for her and her brood to leave, which they did a few days ago. Well, unfortunately, she left a little one behind.

Since I’m the person who needs to know if the dog (or cat or horse or raccoon…) dies in a movie before I’ll watch it, I’ll give you a spoiler alert: Little Rocky makes it!

However, for a full day, we helped guide him away from the road and back into the yard while he continuously cried for his mama! It was heartbreaking. He kept trying to follow us.

By later that night — too close to my bedtime, actually — we realized that Rocky’s mama had abandoned him. I called the DNR and was directed to an employee — a lovely person who lives in Lake Linden.

Mike carefully scooped up the little guy and put him in a box. We moved the box into the back of the jeep, and I drove Rocky to Lake Linden.

The woman, Jen, told me that the poor little guy must have been on his own for a few days. We’d only seen him that day because he was probably hiding.

He was dirty, dehydrated, and malnourished. However, he is now in good hands! Jen will nurse him back to health so he can be successfully reintroduced to the “wild.”

Living so close to wildlife has its perks. It’s meditative and healing. However, it’s also weird at times. Turkeys in the trees. Flying squirrels in the attic. Raccoons in the carriage house.

It can also be dangerous. We’ve had coyotes, wolves, and a cougar within our neighborhood. We also get bears, like the beauty I saw when leaving town last week.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else! If you’re looking for a place to visit that brings both serenity and excitement all wrapped up in a lush, verdant bow, come to the U.P!