I'm a fairly simple cook Grazie - do you think the Rat-a touille might have attracted it - or maybe the strawberry Mous(s)e?

I know what it's like trying to 'help' a wild animal in the house. I once bought a not so injured fox home late at night. By the following morning it seemed fully recovered and quite unappreciative of my friendly advances. Seeing as 'friendly' didn't work I tried mild persuation with a broomstick. The teeth marks in the broomstick convinced me that this was not an animal to be taken lightly and a trip to the v.e.t. for a checkup was out of the question.

All ended well. Somehow I got her into a cage and she had a good life at Taronga Zoo.
My only regret was not getting a photo of the look on my cats face when he came face to face with the fox.

So Peter, did you consider taking up the ancient sport of falconing.

Bob.

> "So Peter, did you consider taking up the ancient sport of falconing."

My attempts at training it towards the window were enough for me, Bob - but, like the best falconers, I wore my thick work gloves from the shed before I started messing with Beaky!

When I was younger I lived in the Transkei near the Oribi Gorge on a buddies farm and a few times we saw a large ape species on our place that is still today undescribed or photographed
The local parks board know about it’ many people have seen the species but have never captured or a dead one found…true

a few neighbours found a full grown leopard in there lounge

Craig from LightAds and I when we were really younger “about 10 years” had a leopard cub’‘Sheba” as a pet on our aunts farm but as it got bigger had to give it to the parks board ranger who lived on the next property and she lived wild in that area for many years

my ex wife's father was the RAF head of security at changi in singapore and often recounted the story of the newly arrived wife phoning in panic stricken about a lizard on the dining room table. the officer on duty told her to calm down and that 'chick-chacks' (small wall climbing lizards) were common in the tropics. the woman was not in the least pacified. he sent out a couple of security officers to 'calm' her down. upon their arrival they were greeted by an 8 foot kimono lizard sitting on the dining room table. they, and the woman left rather hurriedly.....

"8 foot kimono lizard "

Japanese version of the pyjama python?

Bob.

Best I can do from here in the suburbs of Seattle are regular visits from raccoons in the yard and car port, although never in the garbage bin, and coyote in the street and yard from time to time, the latter no doubt looking for cats, a tasty favorite.

Raptor in the kitchen seems a bit too daunting!

Jack

Deer herds eating all our shrubs, possums, skunks, and foxes living under the porch; beaver raiding the neighbors' trees. A very occasional bear passing through, hawks enjoying the side benefits of the bird feeders; raccoons doing a peeping-tom routine on the neighbor lady. All this in the Washington DC suburbs. (Preferable to much of the human life in the area, however.)

A self inflicted story-I spent fifteen seasons filming the TV show "Wild Kingdom, and while in Northern Wisconsin, the office asked me to pick up a lion cub from a roadside zoo near me and send it down to Chicago where the studio intros were being shot for an African show. I picked up the lion cub and took him to my motel. Then that night, to give him some time out of his dog kennel, i turned him loose in the tiled bathroom. Needless to say when I needed the use of the bathroom much later that night, I barged in, forgetting about my roomate. I usually sleep in only a t-shirt, and the surprised cub nearly ended my love life for good. Fortunately he missed on his first swipe and I was much younger and more agile then.

Ralph

Went to collect our daily supply of eggs from our Perth subrban garden one morning. Found a lovely mess to clean up. Foxy had taken a bite from every one of our eight chickens. It appeared that the intestines proved to be the tastiest morsel. Just one bite and then it was on to the next. None survived of course. Haven't kept a chicken since. Alf.

I had a family of Skunks living under my shed there were 9 babies and one MAMA the were here for months, they played with our cats and my kids almost caught one I videotaped their antics and made a small movie in Vegas. The kids still watch the movie today. Idaho is a fun place to live...

ok Peter,, will i find the video on youtube.... vimeo ... What !! you didn't think to shoot it er i mean video it....oh Peter

Yes - it crossed my mind winrock, but other things got priority - all I got was a terrible blurred mobile phone shot across the room (I've since found out how to zoom the phone!). Had I not got rid of it so quickly next morning and had to call for help I was going to get out the EX1 but it never happened ....

hmmmm.... i live in the middle of nowhere & get nothing. Except pigeons & mice. Ohh... the barn dog got a possum once (not really, it was just playing dead)!

Go figure!

Here in Los Angeles we have mountain lions in the middle of town, sometimes attacking even adults (although they prefer toddlers, "soft with a crunchy center" :O).

And the deer here are as grateful for the snack-on-a-stick roses here as anywhere else. Unless you hang "Irish Spring" deodorant soap bars among your roses... Really works: they either hate it, or it masks the rose scent.

The other night I woke with what sounded like dull opera and followed the sound only to find a rapper in my kitchen. I knew the friendly approach was'nt going to work so I "beat" him with a stick........ only joking.

Umm.. This remind me of UB40's song "There's rat in the kitchen"

I've been checking pics online and I now think it was not in fact a Falcon, but a Whistling Kite !

Pity - if I'd known at the time we could have jammed some Roger Whitaker songs together.

I went and bought a kids book for my daughter and the attendant ask ‘would you like me to wrap that for you sir”
Yes I replied so he said

Little Bo Peep tshh tshh lost her sheep bup bup tssh bup

Rats in the book shop tooo

Funny thing, I saw (and wore) a Raptor in the air! Just this morning ,even!!
http://www.tonysuits.com/zwing/detail/raptor.htm

Hey, I didn't see a falcon in the kitchen this morning, but I saw a spotted eagle in the forum this afternoon...

Good one, Tim!

I live in a rural area, and am fortunate to have a lot of encounters with wildlife around my home.

I was taking a shower one afternoon when the phone rang and I answered it from the shower. It was the editorial writer for the local newspaper who has been a friend since high school when we both were deejays at competing local radio stations. He knew I was in the shower and made some rude comment on it.

As I am chatting with him I heard a commotion in my bedroom outside the bathroom door. I poked my head out of the shower stall just in time to see my greyhound headed towards me following a flash of red fur. Before I could discern the red furry creature, it saw an escape from the hound around the shower curtain. So, I was joined in the shower by a red squirrel.

"Hey, get outta here, out, out" I yelled as it entered the stall.

"Who's there?" asks my friend.

The squirrel doesn't like the water on the stall floor and starts climbing the nearest tree!

"Get the hell off me, off, off," I holler as the tree trunk starts bleading when the damn things claws upward towards some nuts that weren't his.

"What's happening?" yells my friend in frustration. "Who is there?"

"It's a squirrel! Get outta here," I shreak.

"Are you outdoors?"

"No, I'm in the shower."

"With a squirrel?"

As the squirrel scrambles out of the bathrrom running beneath the greyhound, I had some explaining to do to a very confused newspaperman.

Then there was the visitor in a nearly dark kitchen that slitthered across the floor in front of me in the faint light as I headed for the sink,,,,,,,,,,

For another time.

David