Wildlife

First, I wanted to say that I am officially satisfied with my trip to Australia (for now). I was walking down the sidewalk, and I heard laughter coming from the trees. My head perked up and I listened closer, scanning the trees in the churchyard. Sure enough, I knew what it was, and I went to get a really good look. Up in (man I wish I could say it was in an "old gum tree") a big old tree I saw the ever so ugly countenance of a Kookaburra. I never realized until that moment, that that was one of the animals I most wanted to see out in its' natural habitat. Why? Because of the song...(that I learned in elementary school)

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
merry merry king of the bush is he,
laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra,
gay your life must be!"

So ya, I'm content now. For those of you who've expressed a disinterest in snakes, skip the rest of this blog entry... At work the other day, one of the patients walks into the nurses' station with a short tale to tell. She got up in the morning and noticed that her sliding door (all the patient's rooms have sliding doors and patios) was slightly ajar, so she went to have a closer look and realized that something was propping the door open. Thinking someone had shoved a stick or something in there to stop it from closing all the way, she bends over, opens the door a bit and flicks the item out of the door way. As it lands on her patio, she gets a closer look at this thing, and realizes it's a baby snake. About a foot long and skinny as a pencil, it had one middle section that was completely flat from being closed in the door. It was definitely dead. So she thought it would be good if we informed maintenance so that they could search for possible siblings or mother of this snake. Being the brave soul I am (hey! It was dead!) I volunteered to collect it and leave a note for maintenance. So, specimen cup in hand (you know, the ones they make you pee into for urine samples? Perfect size) I go out and gingerly use the lid to slide the still warm, limp and slightly malodorous little snake into the specimen cup. The next day I showed it to the maintenance guy... should really have left the lid on though... man did that thing stink! I don't think they did anything about it. Kinda hope that's my only snake encounter.