Adventures with wildlife

Yesterday was not a banner day for me and wildlife. There were three separate incidents that led to this post. Had they not occurred on the same day, I wouldn't have really thought anything of it. However, nature seemed to be conspiring against me yesterday, thus this post was hatched:

Incident 1: The bird at HEB
After loading up Anjali in the car and dropping Amar's lunch off at his office, I decided that I had time to do a quick grocery store run. Upon arriving at HEB, I parked the car, loaded the baby into the cart and headed toward the store. I noticed that there were some HEB employees milling around the parking lot, but didn't really think anything of it.

I was about 20 feet from the store when I felt something on my the back of my head. I quickly moved to brush it off, and then saw a bird fly precariously close to my face. Then I heard someone behind me yell, "Yep - that was a bird. I'm working on it!" I turned around to see that it was one of the employees talking, and then surmised that I had just been dive-bombed by said bird. I felt my head again, to make sure that the bird didn't leave anything behind after it said hello to me. All clear. Luckily, the bird targeted me and not the baby.

Incident 2: The squirrel
After a successful trip through the grocery store, I loaded everything (and everyone) back into the car and headed home. About 3 blocks from the grocery store, I apparently murdered a squirrel. I say "apparently" because I didn't even see him. I heard him. More specifically, I heard a "thump thump" as I ran over him, and not until I checked the rear-view mirror did I realize what I had done.

Incident 3: The bug in the kitchen
Now, you may know that I have a strict no-tolerance policy towards all members of the bug, insect and/or arachnid categories. No-tolerance. I will either kill it, or distance myself so far from it as to render its scary qualities mostly ineffective. And all of them have scary qualities.

Last night, as I was heading to bed, I turned the kitchen light on. I noticed some dust particles coming from one of the lights, and called Amar's attention to it. We both examined the light for a few seconds, and then Amar said "WOAH!" I then saw the reason: a huge, black bug started to poke its head down from the light and into the kitchen. Amar quickly handed me the baby and I darted into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

Now, after Amar dispatched the offending bug, he and I started to realize that Bella, the not-so-bright member of the Scottish Terrier branch of the Rama family, tried to alert us to the insect earlier in the week. She spent the better part of one evening staring intently at part of the ceiling of the kitchen. Amar and I both inspected that part of the kitchen several times that evening, but found nothing. Bella remained intent (she's nothing if not dedicated, especially when it looks like she might get some sort of food out of the operation...and I can only imagine that this bug looked like dessert to her). So it now looks like we have a good watchdog in our family. Apologies, Bella, for underestimating your intelligence in the past!

All that to say that yesterday was not my day with the local wildlife. Hopefully today will be much less dramatic!