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2025-06-27 00:26:30
2025-06-27 00:25:16
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When I lived near the coast of Washington state, the end of my street stopped at a meadow behind which a forest reached up toward the sky and out toward the bay. The border between forest and meadow was filled with blackberries. I would often go up and eat the blackberries on the way to a little stream where I loved to write in my journal. On regular occasion I would see deer. Once in a long while I would see a bear with cubs and carefully go back home. I never told my parents about this, because they might want to do something about it. I was happy to live peacefully with my ursine friends.
Have you had any encounters with wild animals? What were they like? Were you excited, scared?
Today’s topic is suggested by @Muse but there’s always an element of randomness. Grab your beverage preference (pixel or not), follow Wheaton’s Law and enjoy the space.
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Welcome to #CheckIn for FRIDAY, 2025 June 27
When I lived near the coast of Washington state, the end of my street stopped at a meadow behind which a forest reached up toward the sky and out toward the bay. The border between forest and meadow was filled with blackberries. I would often go up and eat the blackberries on the way to a little stream where I loved to write in my journal. On regular occasion I would see deer. Once in a long while I would see a bear with cubs and carefully go back home. I never told my parents about this, because they might want to do something about it. I was happy to live peacefully with my ursine friends.
Have you had any encounters with wild animals? What were they like? Were you excited, scared?
Today’s topic is suggested by @Muse but there’s always an element of randomness. Grab your beverage preference (pixel or not), follow Wheaton’s Law and enjoy the space.
Program note: Please comment, and feel free to Like this post, but please resist the urge to Share or Repost it. Doing that creates an additional instance of a #Checkin post for a given day, and tends to fragment or dilute the conversations.
To find out more about #CHECKIN, check our site
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Greetings… Ahoj! Aloha! Bom dia! Bonjour! Bună! Ciao! G’day! Geia sas! Günaydın, صباح الخير , בוקר טוב 你好! Håfa Adai! Hi! Hei! Hello! Hallo! Hei! Hola! Howdy! Halō! Kamusta! Kia Orana! Kon’nichiwa! Mabuhay! Moi! Namaste! Ni Hao! Neih hou! Pagi! Saluton! Sawasdee! Shwmae! Γειάσας! Talofa! Terve!😄
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In Memoriam
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We hope you’ll use the hashtag to keep track of the daily post and join in if you’re not on this list. The topic is always open 💕
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Jodi •
And then a few weeks ago, a pair of pigeons tried to take up residence iinside my place! I heard a thump in the other room, go to check, and there's one standing in a pan on the stove and another inside the window!
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Joseph Teller •
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Cass M 👋🏽 •
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Richard •
At night it pulled my father's t-shirt off a rope line and pooped on it - even wild deer didn't think much of the guy but I digress.
One day, while I was reclining on a log and reading a book ("Contact" by Carl Sagan if I remember) the buck came within reach and snorted at me while ducking its head. The buck was pretty skittish though so there was no inter-species "Contact" between us.
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Janet Logan 🏳️⚧️ •
Hi everyone. Now that the wedding is over, and we are recuperating, you'll probably see me occasionally.
A Unique Handfasting Ceremony: Love and Pride Celebrated
An Aging Trans Womanroddio likes this.
Muse •
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Janet Logan 🏳️⚧️ •
You can start with the link above. Then ask any questions you’d like. I’m very happy!
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Mark Wollschlager •
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Richard •
An urban deer came into view.
Dog took off after the deer.
The rope leash cut through the flesh on my hand.
I took off after Dog and ran until I was ready to throw up.
Eventually Dog came back, well exercised, panting, and happy.
Dumb dog. Deer legs are longer than dog legs - what the hell?
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Karl Auerbach •
I've also had bears play with the flaps on my tent while in the Boy Scouts (me, not the bear), in Kings Canyon where a bear tried to break into my car (and did some damage), and lots of bears in Yosemite Valley. Fortunately all were black bears, not brown grizzle bears.
(In the journals of Lewis and Clark they describe their first encounter with a grizzle - they, of course, shot it. It got mad. They shot it again. It got madder. In the journals they said they decided it was a bad idea to shoot at grizzles.)
Fortunately banana slugs rarely take up arms - I have heard that they can attack without warning.
Deer - tasty when properly prepared. I promise I won't eat 'em if they would stop eating my garden.
And we have mountain lions around the house in Santa Cruz. One came to our front door - and I mean right up to the knob. And we hear them - they sound l... show more
I've also had bears play with the flaps on my tent while in the Boy Scouts (me, not the bear), in Kings Canyon where a bear tried to break into my car (and did some damage), and lots of bears in Yosemite Valley. Fortunately all were black bears, not brown grizzle bears.
(In the journals of Lewis and Clark they describe their first encounter with a grizzle - they, of course, shot it. It got mad. They shot it again. It got madder. In the journals they said they decided it was a bad idea to shoot at grizzles.)
Fortunately banana slugs rarely take up arms - I have heard that they can attack without warning.
Deer - tasty when properly prepared. I promise I won't eat 'em if they would stop eating my garden.
And we have mountain lions around the house in Santa Cruz. One came to our front door - and I mean right up to the knob. And we hear them - they sound like a cross between a human baby and a domestic kitty cat.
I've run across rattle snakes - fortunately all had working rattles.
Coyotes came through our camp of 3rd graders in Joshua Tree; buffalo wandered through the camp when we took those 3rd graders to Catalina island.
The scariest was when a red tail hawk decided it did not want me in my garden. It came at me, talons extended, and flew within inches of my face.
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Lisa Stranger •
I posted in this space a couple of years ago when I looked down and saw one less than a foot away from where I was standing on my patio. It was brightly colored so I wasn't sure, but it turned out to be not a threat (rat snake).
When my parents were still alive, snakes turned up in their pool enclosure within a week of each other—the black snake I fished out of the pool (probably saving its life), then some kind of brownish snake with a diamond pattern on it that got trapped in the enclosure (managed to stay out of the pool, unlike the other one) and resisted my attempts to shoo it along with the pool skimmer. It struck it a couple of times. Dad finally told me to poke the screen loose in a corner, and it left. Their little dogs wanted to halp. NOPE.
The most 😳 one was probably the time I was day-sleeping and staggered from the bed to the bathroom to placate my bladder... sat down and noticed some pink cloth from my robe had fallen on the fl... show more
I posted in this space a couple of years ago when I looked down and saw one less than a foot away from where I was standing on my patio. It was brightly colored so I wasn't sure, but it turned out to be not a threat (rat snake).
When my parents were still alive, snakes turned up in their pool enclosure within a week of each other—the black snake I fished out of the pool (probably saving its life), then some kind of brownish snake with a diamond pattern on it that got trapped in the enclosure (managed to stay out of the pool, unlike the other one) and resisted my attempts to shoo it along with the pool skimmer. It struck it a couple of times. Dad finally told me to poke the screen loose in a corner, and it left. Their little dogs wanted to halp. NOPE.
The most 😳 one was probably the time I was day-sleeping and staggered from the bed to the bathroom to placate my bladder... sat down and noticed some pink cloth from my robe had fallen on the floor. WTF? I was past the point of no return when I realized it wasn't cloth. Finished up ASAP and gingerly tiptoed out the bathroom door. Fortunately Mr. Stranger was up. The snake was kind of lethargic, so we were able to get it in a long-handled dustpan and get it outside. I kinda wish I had wet it down or something, but I was just freaked. out. and wanted it out of my house. Still have little idea how it got in. The exhaust fan is the likeliest culprit.
Maybe someday we'll find the box with the "what it means when a particular critter keeps turning up" book in it.
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Deb Zaccaro-Rojas •
....and the time I spotted a groundhog hanging on the curb at the... show more
....and the time I spotted a groundhog hanging on the curb at the side of the road watching the traffic go by like 'ok, not yet safe to cross the road...too much noisy smelly killer things going past'
There are way more animals where I live now than there were on the South Shore of Long Island in Mastic Beach where I used to live....
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Deb Zaccaro-Rojas •
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Janet Logan 🏳️⚧️ •
https://spiritualgleam.com/what-does-it-mean-spiritually-when-you-see-a-snake/
What Does it Mean Spiritually When You See a Snake?
Muhammad Zahid (SpiritualGleam)2 people like this
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Richard •
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Joyce Donahue •
Back when I lived in Rockford (called the "Forest City" because of its many mature trees) we regularly had raccoons scrambling around in the trees at night especially when the moon was full. We also had some good-sized sewer rats who came out on Fourth of July night because of the noise from the massive municipal fireworks display.
A favorite memory: one evening I went out on the porch to call in my indoor-outdoor cat and when I said "kitty, kitty, kitty!" a little narrow white face appeared quizzically peeking around the corner. It was a possum. I promptly told it "YOU'RE not the kitty!" and it disappeared.
When I lived in a small rural town we had occasional deer running through the streets and I rescued toads that got stuck at the bottom of stairs regularly. Here in suburbia, I have seen occasional coyotes and a fox.
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smellsofbikes •
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Deb Zaccaro-Rojas •
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Joyce Donahue •
I also once encountered a disabled bat flopping on the floor when I opened up church for a rehearsal back in that rural town. I inverted a trashcan over it and called Animal Control. They said it was probably rabid.
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Deb Zaccaro-Rojas •
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John Hummel •
The pinnacle of our trip, goth geographically and in terms of the experience, was in Juno and the park where the Mendenhall resides.
The walk from the park headquarters to the glacier is about a mile or two, and the six of us (my wife, our kids, and my wife's mother, her husband, and I) made the trek. It was awesome! Then we made the trek back.
I was with my kids (who were 10 and 7 at the time) about 50 yards ahead of my wife, her mom and step dad, when I heard her step day yell, "Just keep walking! Don't stop, and don't run!"
A brown black bear had crossed the path between us, with her two cubs. (Ain't nothing more dangerous than a bear with her cubs.) The bears proceeded to follow a path parallel to ours about 10 to 15 feet away. We walked together for the best part... show more
The pinnacle of our trip, goth geographically and in terms of the experience, was in Juno and the park where the Mendenhall resides.
The walk from the park headquarters to the glacier is about a mile or two, and the six of us (my wife, our kids, and my wife's mother, her husband, and I) made the trek. It was awesome! Then we made the trek back.
I was with my kids (who were 10 and 7 at the time) about 50 yards ahead of my wife, her mom and step dad, when I heard her step day yell, "Just keep walking! Don't stop, and don't run!"
A brown black bear had crossed the path between us, with her two cubs. (Ain't nothing more dangerous than a bear with her cubs.) The bears proceeded to follow a path parallel to ours about 10 to 15 feet away. We walked together for the best part of a mile. It was terrifying and exhilarating and one of the best experiences of my life.
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roddio •
Airplane Crash Memorial On Japacha Ridge | Hidden San Diego
Hidden San Diego3 people like this
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Karl Auerbach •
"California bear who injured Lake Tahoe camper killed by park ranger"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/26/california-bear-lake-tahoe
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deanc •
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libramoon •
What should we give him to show our appreciation?
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Jodi •
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roddio •
Just give him a ride on one of his rockets.
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stefani banerian
we've had deer, raccoons, o'possums, moles, eagles, hawks, pileated woodpeckers; probably more.
There are plenty of orcas in the Salish Sea, but I've not seen those yet.
I spotted marmots up on #Tahoma .
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Richard •
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Muse •
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Muse •
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Joseph Teller •
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Lisa Stranger •
🤔
one of those houses (where prior sightings occurred) was definitely holding me back when I let it go, and the other one arguably was... I'm kinda happy here, I hate to think this one is too
although all of those occurred before I found out I was autistic, which has been some fairly epic self discovery
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Lisa Stranger •
You'd have to ask Mr. Stranger how much panic was in my voice when I got to the living room and announced that there was a snake in my bathroom 😬
(it was a small bathroom, too! I pretty much had to step over the thing to get out... still don't know how I didn't step on it coming in)
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Muse •
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Carsten Raddatz •
Here's details if you haz can Pixelfed pixelfed.automat.click/p/carst…
Three photos in that post - on the first you can see a very happy Golden dashing of towards the background, into the kinda dark part of the forest, because his favourite lake is there. Like excited, flying ears and all. Then he stopped, I saw why.
So story time. Forest lake trip one early morning. An unleashed #MalteTheDog runs ahead, bubbling with excitement; the lake waits where this path ends. But. Next photos, something stepped onto the same path. Being t... show more
Here's details if you haz can Pixelfed pixelfed.automat.click/p/carst…
Three photos in that post - on the first you can see a very happy Golden dashing of towards the background, into the kinda dark part of the forest, because his favourite lake is there. Like excited, flying ears and all. Then he stopped, I saw why.
So story time. Forest lake trip one early morning. An unleashed #MalteTheDog runs ahead, bubbling with excitement; the lake waits where this path ends. But. Next photos, something stepped onto the same path. Being two leash lengths ahead of me, there was no good way of stopping him. To my relief he stopped by himself, some 15-20m or so away from their path, fascinated by the alpha boar and the sounder that followed, around two dozen piggies and piglets overall. Was I relieved nothing else happened! Once they had crossed doggo ran off for lake time. Good boy!
#goldenretriever #dogsofmastodon #dogsofpixelfed #dogsoffriendica #fedidogs #黃金拾獵犬 #黃金尋回犬 #狗 #hunde #hundi #dogs #boar #野豬 #intheforest
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roddio •
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Muse •
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Carsten Raddatz •
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