One Dead Slug

I can relate to author James Thurber who wrote, among other things, My World and Welcome to It, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Night the Bed Fell, and other little goodies.  He was the one who penned the phrase "ghoulies and ghosties and three-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night".  He was a cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker, finding humor in the simplest things in a warped sort of way.  Blind since childhood when his brother shot out one of his eyes while playing a game about William Tell (and the other eye subsequently failed), he created stories and cartoons in his mind.  His world (and welcome to it!) was probably as small as mine. 

So here I am, talking about a dead slug.  I'm not sure what the scientific name for slugs is.  I've always known them as "slugs"--snails, but without shells.  I have them in my yard.  The only reason I know I have them in my yard is that I can see their little slime trails on the patio, and I can see what they do to my plants...but I never actually get to see the little buggers.  I don't dig around looking for them.  (I'm not big on slime.) 

Well...yesterday, I noticed big, long slime trails on the patio.  It's like following the dotted line in a cartoon that tracks a character on a long trek from one location to another.  I started to look at the trails, thinking I would find a starting point or an ending point.  They meandered all over a fourth of the patio in ever smaller circles until, inevitably, they ended in a slurry with one dead slug in the center of it.  Humph!  A dead slug!  Perhaps he lost his way on the concrete and just gave up the ghost when he couldn't find his way back to the yard.  Were it earlier in the season, the ants would be on him like white on rice...but there he sits today, dehydrating into a much smaller version of what he once was.  Thus it is at my house, aka Slug Heaven.  May God have mercy on his soul!

So...I was out back after the slug episode, lopping off some mulberry shoots that come up everywhere in my yard, thanks to the mulberry trees down at Hummel Park.  I had just cut down a couple of them when I happened to look down near my right foot and saw...a lizard!  Scared the daylights out of me!  Turns out, as you might suspect, that this lizard was one of my grandson's rubber ones.  The last time Ryan was here was the week of the Fourth of July.  The lawn has been mowed several times since then, but this lizard was untouched by the mower, and apparently unseen by the guy who mows for me.  Lucky lizard!!

Other suspicious patio happenings since July:

*My figurine of a little boy holding a frog, given to me by a custodian at school when my brother died, was knocked over and decapitated.  I noticed it right after the lawn was mowed, but my "mower" didn't say anything about it.  It's a clean break.  I hope to be able to repair it.
*My little squirrel figurine keeps getting knocked off the yard bench.  He's pretty heavy.  I'd be surprised if the wind does it...but who knows?  Ghoulies and ghosties???
*The cat graveyard at the end of the patio has had all of its markers overturned...  The markers are like garden stepping stones.  I suspect my grandson in that deal.  (When he was younger, he wanted to dig the cats up, just to see what they looked like!)  Still, I'm not sure why he would turn them all over...
*Every stinkin' leaf on the Hostas in the cat graveyard have been stripped.  Rabbits?  Squirrels?  Slugs??  All I have left are stems sticking up out of the ground.   Things that go bump in the night???
*There is a live squirrel that comes by the patio frequently.  He approaches me closely without fear, which indicates to me that someone is feeding him and he thinks I will provide dinner.  Now I wonder if I should buy food for him, or just let him go on his way...
*In the past couple of days, I have seen squirrels, cottontail rabbits, and adult raccoons running for cover in my neighbor's back yard...and mine.  I don't mind the rabbits and squirrels, but I DO mind the raccoons.  I don't like surprises!  Raccoons are just as cute as they can be when they are babies, but they turn into vicious marauders as adults and can do a lot of damage...or make big messes.  I suspect they are living under the neighbor's minibarn.  Ugh!

Having lunch with a friend tomorrow.  That will get me out of My World (and welcome to it) for a little while.  In the meantime, I just keep on pluggin'!