Many years ago I had to drive my husbands truck to work...forget why...but it kept loosing power and it was all I could do to keep it running long enough to get to a gas station. The attendant looked under the hood, and there in the air filter was a mamma bird sitting on her nest. She flew out and screeched as the attendant moved the nest to a nearby true. Truck ran fine after that.

I love the names Sassy and Sassy Girl. Don't think I've ever heard that before. Yeah, a snake at the back door would not be good, but imagine coming into your kitchen and seeing one! That is what happened to me. I was sitting out by the pool with some girls and an empty bottle of wine. I was feeling no pain. I walked into the kitchen with one of the girls, and she shrieked, "What's that?" Right in front of us was a wriggling, writhing spawn of Satan. Without blinking, I threw a glass mixing bowl over the top of him. I'm assuming it was male... My husband was out of town on business, so I was left to my own devices. The girls were big sissies and they went home. Since I did not have the ability to think clearly, I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, he was still trappped under the dome. Things did not end well for Mr. Snake. It was me or him, and I wasn't going down without a fight.

I was pulling weeds from under my two bird feeders last week, when I can eye to eye with a small snake. That was a surprise. Love watching the birds at my feeders except, birds keeping flying into my BOW window.

I had the same thing happen this spring. Unfortunately, shortly after they hatched I think a cat got the babies. They were too small to fly and were just starting to get feathers. I was really disappointed but there wasn't anything I could do.

We had Carolina Wrens make a nest in our front door wreath as well. We hated to see them leave, for we enjoyed them so much.

You can put those bird silhouette stickers on the windows. They look almost clear to us, but the birds see them big time! At my mother's nursing home, there are multiple windows in the dining room, and every spring a Yellow Rumped Warbler would see himself and keep flying into the window. I happened to have a few of those stickers sent to me by the Audabon Society almost every year at Christmas as free gifts in trying to sell their greeting cards, so I peeled off the backing and put them in the windows. It works!

You go, Girl!! Proud of you for empowering yourself to take care of things, LOL! I've had to do this for many years as I am single. I've gotten really good at the spider thing, especially those big enough to hear walking across the floor! Never go down without a fight -- Girl Power!

I hate superstitions that tend to make some people hateful toward animals. When we were moving into a house in 2005, the movers had the front door wide open and a beautiful male cardinal flew in and somehow found his way to an upstairs bedroom. He was a bit frantic, but when I opened a window, he quickly found his way out. I thought he was so beautiful flying around right over our heads that I commemorated the moment by painting a mural in that bedroom that included a cardinal in flight. If we had any bad luck during the 9 years we lived in that house, I certainly wouldn't blame it on that precious bird. How did people ever come up with such stupid ideas?

On Nextdoor . com someone near us recently posted a picture of a screech owl that had flown down her chimney and stayed for a visit a couple of times. It was adorable, sitting on an egg carton, with that glaring owl expression that said, "You EAT eggs?!!!"

You and I must be kindred spirits Jan. Nobody has said girl power to me in years. I love it!

I hate spiders as much as I hate snakes. I have the same reaction to spiders that some women have to mice. When we lived in North Carolina, we had a pecan tree. I was out one day with a cane fishing pole knocking pecans out of the tree when I felt something land on my head. It started moving. I started doing the dance of a woman possessed! It fell off my head and onto the ground and I almost had a heart attach. It was the size of a tarantula, had flesh on its legs and had fangs. I kid you not. It reminded me of something out of a horror movie. I looked it up online. It is called a Carolina Wolf Spider. Apparently it also has glow in the dark eyes and stalks its prey at night. Its bite is said to hurt like the sting of a wasp. I found a video on YouTube to show you. By the way, the guy in this video must have trouble finding a girlfriend.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=43JgFArw428

And Jan, I also wanted to call your attention to the comments for this video. You can see that there is a whole sub-culture of people out there who think these spiders are lovable. Look at the avatar of the first commenter. Can you imagine going on a date with one of these guys and having him take you home to meet his spiders?