Oh lucky you! One of my lifelong dreams is to visit Hawaii someday. Wonderful hearing that Hawaii has no rabies. It also sounds unlikely that humaniacs will be allowed to import any wildlife from the continental States.
Growing up I remember thinking how cool it would be to live close to wildlife. When I first moved to California, wildlife was found mostly in the mountains and there, if you were lucky enough to see a bear rummaging through a garbage can, you would have already heard the warning yells from other campers down the road a ways and you’d already be safely locked in your car by the time the bear was close.
Now in local off-ramp shrubbery of one of California’s busiest highways we have mountain lions giving birth, all sizes of coyotes loping through the local sports park, opossums challenging folks taking out their garbage, and racoons living in ornamental shrubbery along busy sidewalks and in storm drains.
I grew up loving the great outdoors, went camping with my family and sloshed through snake filled creeks, slept under the open stars with no tent, no cabin available in the middle of nowhere while at Church Camp.
Now I don’t even want to chance becoming some starved mountain lion’s next meal from hiking in any of our woodsier parks. A full grown California mountain lion carrying a 140 pound deer in his mouth can clear a 7 foot fence. They say carry a big stick, and try to look big if you encounter a mountain lion on any of the many hiking paths in local parks. However, according to a local park ranger, you’ll only get to see a mountain lion shortly before the first bite, when the mountain lion is upon you.
There have been a few rare sightings seen by large groups of hiking elementary school kids. The local park rangers said that those sightings were “probably a rabid lion or a fierce Momma lion guarding her nest.”
Oh yes, we also have lovely insect eating, rabies carrying swarms of bats nesting in the roofs of local city buildings.
Late one hot Summer evening I was watering our mini-garden on our balcony when I suddenly heard high-pitched screeching, felt a whoosh of air just as I noticed the huge black mass of bats zooming by.
Back to your lovely cat, I want one just like him, now. He looks like one of the older appleheads, maybe he has a bit of Russian Blue in his line. :D
I know the critters you speak of well. We lived in Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park for decades before moving here. Wife has stories about the rattlers she came on unexpectedly. I like no snakes here.
Not to beat a thread to death, but no, our Miki ( I originally named him Sassy Mickey, in honor of my Irish Grandfather's favorite name for a sassy sprite).
We were devastated when our Loco (a Siamese kitten we adopted that had been abandoned) died and wife insisted on getting another Siamese. He is a pedigreed Chocolate Point Wedge Head, whatever the hell that means.
I tend toward mongrels, they appeal to the Irish-French in me..............