Anya the Critter Whisperer

Anya really does amazing things with animals.  This post is simply to capture some of these things so that, when we're all older, we don't lose the memory and tell her these things never happened.

The tale of Blackie the Cricket (as told (mostly) by Anya)

My friend Eva was keeping a lizard at her house.  Her name was Banana.  Banana eats crickets but she needed small crickets to eat so I had to take home the big ones.  Champion, Blackie, Stripe, and Snow (a.k.a Walking Exoskeleton).  Snow died, but I still have three.  I went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house, and of course I brought my crickets. I was on the deck holding Blackie.  I accidentally dropped Blackie, and he went between the cracks in the deck.  I started crying.

[Dad takes over the narrative here]
Anya was sitting on the deck bemoaning her fate and crying over the loss of Blackie the cricket, which was far and away her favorite of the bunch.  I sat down next to her, put my arm around her and said, that, no she probably would never see Blackie again, and that I was very sorry for her loss.

[Anya interjects] My Grandpa said that we could put out some food and he might come out from under the deck but I said, no, he'd already eaten. And Blackie must have liked me because he came out of the deck and crawled up my knee!  I was so happy!

[Dad]
I was truly amazed.  The Cricket really did climb out of the nice dark safety under the deck into Anya's lap as she sat there crying.

A tale of two frogs

We spend a lot of time at Magnuson Park where Anya is fond of chasing frogs snakes and harassing the beavers.

The other day Amy and Anya were walking around the park looking for critters.  Because of the drought this year, frogs in particular have been hard to come by.  But Anya happened to look into a culvert with a steel grate over it and noticed a couple of frogs down there.

[Anya takes over]

...And I really wanted one. So I grabbed a piece of grass that was really long, and I bent it into something that looked like a fishing hook.  I put it down there, and soon enough there was a frog sitting on it.  I pulled it out and voila! I put it in a mud puddle.  The end.

Bass on bare Brass

On several occasions, Anya has told me, "Watch this dad I'm gonna catch a fish with a bare hook!"  Still every time she says it, I find my self incredulous saying, "Anya, you're not going to catch anything with a bare hook." And every time she proves me wrong.  Last week end, yet again, she managed to land a bass or two on a bare hook.

Hungry Mungry the Crow
And of course we shouldn't forget Hungry Mungry Anya's pet crow.  There's nothing particularly special about this relationship as far as I can tell. Anya gives Mr. Mungry free vittles and he appreciates it.  He comes by and caws at her through the living room window, and she gives him food and caws back.  Loudly.