This snake was relaxing atop some bushes, drinking in the drizzle of rain that was following.

This snapping alligator turtle wasn't exactly in my backyard -- but he was in the neighborhood, and I think that counts!

This baby grackle was fighting hard to climb back up the tree from which I think he fell. Sadly, I'm not sure the little fellow survived his early-nest-leaving.

And lastly, I’m sorry to gross you out — but this RAT is outside of my porch in a tree, Boomerang and Einstein are going crazy, Coco is asleep, and I’m kind of freaked out that there’s a rat less than four feet from my couch.

This rat looks positively scurvy (no, I don't know what that means, exactly, but it sounds good). I need help! Seriously, this guy is scary!

Einstein is a Boston cat and she knows from rats. She caught a rat one time, in a crazy-ass apartment I lived in on Commercial Street, down in the North End, where there is only one kind of rat that’s allowed to walk the streets (or apartments in my case). Einstein caught the little mofo (excuse my language) and then, of course, I had to shake it out of her mouth ’cause I was afraid it would bite her and then I trapped it on the floor with a pot and then slid a cookie sheet under the pot, trapped the rat (you dirty rat!) and then had to walk — filled with terror! — down three flights of stairs, out into the streets of the North End of Boston, and I then flung the whole kit and kaboodle into the middle of the street and pots and sheets and rats went flying everywhere.

I know it wasn’t very nice of me, but I’m not kidding — I was scared out of my pajamas. Oh, wait, I wasn’t wearing any — I’m not kidding, I went through my apartment building and braved the crazy streets of No-end in a tank top and undies. That’s how much I wanted that rat out of my apartment.

Now, if only I could have kept the two-legged rats out as well. 😉