SQUIRREL!!

"Dug" and a Black Squirrel

I can't resist yelling SQUIRREL! (like in the move "Up!") every time I see one. Sometimes out loud but mostly in my head. My dogs hate them with a passion but I think they're so adorable! Sometimes out my kitchen window I will catch one trying to bury nuts in my yard but mostly I see them running around and scurrying up trees. SO CUTE!

So as you would expect, many animals here in the US are different from home and animals that American's just think of as every day things you (well I :P) can't help but smile when you see them. From racoons, chipmunks, turkeys (yes I've seen wild turkeys!) and of course squirrels to deer, coyotes, beavers and many more! No more do you worry about a roo taking out your car, instead there's the very real (and leaping!) possibility that a deer will kill your car. I don't live in an area for it but some people also have bears and moose wandering around!

Then there's the smaller scarier critters. Rattlesnakes, water moccasins (no not a type of footwear!), brown recluse spiders, and other scary stuff. But, much like Aus, though I know this stuff is around I've not personally seen any that worry me... okay well there was this one HUGE spider (smaller than a huntsman though) crawling on the shower curtain next to the toilet one day that scared the crap out of me... but I didn't fear death.

Rainbow Lorikeet

The birds are pretty boring (sorry America!) in general... There are some pretty ones but nothing like a  rainbow lorikeet flying around. I see one in a picture and smile. Makes me think about how really random Australia is sometimes. We really DO have some weird animals (hello platypus as well)!

That brings me to importation of Aussie wildlife. You can buy some native Australian animals at some pet stores. Sugar gliders, budgies (but they're called parakeets here and I had no idea they were "native" to Australia) as well as cockatiels (those were surprisingly expensive too!) and probably a few others I haven't seen yet.

Black Teddy Bear Hamster

America has their own very awesome pets that you can't get as easily in Australia (as far as I know.. a lot can change in a couple of years!). There are hamsters, chinchillas (kinda look like a type of Aussie possum - American opossums are different), gerbils as well as different kinds of turtles (for example red eared sliders and box turtles), snakes (for example king snakes, corn snakes and ball pythons) frogs (green tree frogs, pacman frogs etc). I personally love hamsters. My husband and I used to have a pet Roborovski hamster. Totally adorable but small and VERY skittish. My husband eventually got her to crawl onto his hand to get a treat but if he moved a muscle while she was doing so she was off! So now that we have two dogs who would probably eat a hamster, we won't be getting another one since she passed on (before we got the dogs thankfully).

Sometimes it's so weird that what you're seeing now is so much like what you were seeing in movies back home and when you were little but now you're living it.. but as with everything eventually you start to stop seeing the differences and see this as a common thing.. except squirrels.. they still make me giggle :) It's only recently when I've started looking around at things imagining what my mum will see when she visits that I'm noticing what I've gotten use to. It's a good way not to take anything for granted.

Here's an interesting (well maybe for some :D) pdf that I found online that lists animals in Iowa (my state): http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/IAN601.pdf  There are some pictures but mostly I google the names :)

Thanks for reading :)