October 13, 1999

Although the pool was supposed to have been covered yesterday, as usual, the pool guys didn't show up as scheduled. I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw a suspiciously familiar form at the bottom of the pool near the steps. Sure enough, I went out there and saw the chipmunk. On the way over to scoop him out, I also saw a friend of his floating nearby. So, I scooped that one out first - that is chipmunk #4 - the original one (the sinker) became chipmunk #5. When will the insanity stop?!? If the pool guys don't show up today, I'm going to start naming names. (As if that would matter!)

October 9, 1999

Well, the pool season is winding down. Along with a few basketfuls of leaves, in the south skimmer I found a mouse and a chipmunk (and a live frog that jumped out and scared the bejeezus out of me). I catapulted them into the woods. I also went back to the chipmunk I had left out on Tuesday - guess what? The crows didn't take him. Eeeewwww. I flipped what was left of him into the woods too.

October 5, 1999

I found this chipmunk, only the second of the year, in the pool robot. The robot managed to squirt me pretty well in the process. As I emptied the filter bag, I thought it was going to be just leaves and acorns again, but I was mistaken. Of course, now that it is getting dark so early, the picture is fairly low quality. This camera does not autofocus well in the dark, and there is no manual focus setting. All of which is just a long winded way for me to say "I'm sorry the picture is blurry." Also, for purely morbid reasons, I just left Chippy where he plopped out of the filter bag. The crows will probably get him - better him than my lawn.

September 30, 1999

Well, we're back from vacation.  Frog number nine was sitting in the skimmer for an indeterminate amount of time (not more than five days).  Not the prettiest specimen.

September 12, 1999

Finally - a banner day for frogs!  We found a pair of frogs in the northern skimmer, and one in the southern skimmer.  They were floating peacefully when I snapped the first set of pictures, and then I dumped them onto the net before taking the pictures I posted.  And, what the heck - I'll put the praying mantis that was floating in the northern skimmer in the gallery too.  The whole kit and kaboodle took the "catapult express" into the woods shortly after getting their portraits taken.

September 11, 1999

Yet another mouse buys it and ends up in the southern skimmer.  We also managed to scoop a few live things out of the pool (one of which had to survive a trip through the pipes to the pump skimmer, I'm afraid), which I will add in a new section presently.

September 7, 1999

Ok, nothing died, but I did rescue four frogs from the pool today.  Frankly, it would have been easier to let them "croak" and bump my counts up, but I guess I'm just a big softie underneath this ruggedly handsome exterior.  (Those of you who know me will enjoy the sarcasm.)

September 5, 1999

For a change, I found this frog in the south skimmer.  I believe that it may be the frog that was sitting in the northern skimmer with the dead mouse on Friday.  He hopped out and back into the pool, where I quickly lost sight of him.  But I knew he'd turn up... eventually.

September 3, 1999

The north skimmer seems to be where all the action is.  We found mouse number seven for the season resting quietly (in peace, you might say) at the bottom of the basket.  It seemed like it would be a shame to wake him, so I just tossed him into the woods instead.

September 2, 1999

We found this poor frog in the northern skimmer, as usual.  Perhaps if we had only gotten there a bit sooner...  Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker!