Cherokee Sage Woman

Learning to live w/ new critters in my world has been a 'Crikey!' experience. Until you've been nose to nose w/ a wolf spider the size of a saucer (at 1st I compared it to my palm.. but it's growing in my mind).. then you haven't had the adrenoline rush that bespeaks 'Fight or Flight!' I don't care how harmless they may be (I've heard conflicting stories.. but my mind opts for deadly venomous) & the thing is said to be able to jump for 1/4 mile.. ok, 25 ft. Same thing.
Twice I have come across dead scorpions in the curled-tail, crouching-tiger position. Yes, dead is dead.. but people, they were ALIVE at some point in time!
Spiders of all varieties proliferate here. Yanna went around naming them while she was here.. Charlotte, Bob, Carol, Ted, Alice. I'm sure we'd be out of monikers in a 24 hr period if we seriously went about it.
Just walking across the lawn results in disfiguring whelps on my exposed skin (ankles & fingers), from the mosquito hoard. Dan gets NO bites whatsoever.. NADA. Does being Scotts-Irish affect your blood this way? Or is it the scotch he has flowing in his bloodstream?
We have pretty green grasshoppers, dozens of varieties of butterflies, beetles, & bugs-w/-no-names. I try to be Buddhist in my thinking that all God's creatures have a right to live. Just not w/ me.. in my house.

The kitties are finding their own way in new surroundings. The boys are heady explorers, trekking down to the basement & getting stuck down there when we close the door, upon coming up to the main floor. They are now banned from the guest room after they went to town on my sacred feather collection in there. Those proud feathers are now matted & gummed together.. damned cats.
Puki has brought the flea-bitis into the house after escaping 3 times, & picking up the beasts under the porch. I have to latch the screens now, so he can just look out & sigh pitifully, until we get the porch screened in.
Tigger has decided he wants to sleep on the dining table at night. Nasty habit, that. I will not have it.. but so far am too sleepy to get up & catch him red-pawed.
Buddy is becoming clingy & almost thinks he wants to be a lap-cat. He'll let us hold him, but he remains in a standing position.. not very cozy, I'm afraid. At least he's trying..
Tabitha has surprised us this week by spending more time out from under the bed, than vice versa. She is pathologically shy.. but wants so badly to be part of the 'group' thing. So in the evening when we're watching TV, she'll slink in & attempt to sit beside us on the couch w/o drawing attention to herself. As long as we don't make eye contact w/ her, she figures she's pulled it off & can't be seen. But if we smile or speak to her.. ZAP! she's gone..
Maybe she's just 'psycho', rather than 'patho'.

All in all, we are adapting well to TN. We find something new to love about it each & everyday. I'm thinking another 50 years of this, & I might just be sated.