Fish Out of Water

Musings and observations about life from an East Coast native now living on the Left Coast in the California State Capitol since 2004. This fish has made her home in Madison, WI (7 years); Portland, OR (2 years); Las Vegas, NV (7 months); Middlebury, VT (3 summers); Marne-la-Vallee, a small town east of Paris, France (6 months); Middletown, CT (3 years); and Marshfield, MA, the fish's coastal hometown 40 miles south of Boston (17 years).

Name:
Location: Sacramento, California, United States

5.20.2014

Day 52: More Urban Wildlife

This morning, I ran along the riverfront path towards the Sacramento Marina that's part of Miller Park.  In the map below, my running route is on Harborview in the upper crescent and also incorporates some pedestrian sidewalk paths, which aren't pictured, that lead from Harborview through Ramp Way and back to Front Street:


My urban wildlife encounters today included a handful of Canadian geese meandering through the grass and yellow wildflowers next to the riverfront path and two orange feral cats crouching on the first wooden bench area on Harborview.  I've often seen feral cats hanging out on that bench and have occasionally seen signs of human care of the cats (e.g. food bowls).  This morning's felines looked very well fed, and the term "ginormous" is truly apt for the big furry fluff-ball that was crouching on the lower platform.

In the past, another common urban wildlife sighting in this area has been what I fondly call "stinky black-and-whites," aka skunks.  This photo shows a little skunk taking an evening promenade on the grassy landscape by the road near Miller Park:


They definitely like to nose around in the underbrush by the river and the marina, so I'm always extremely attentive as I run this route, especially along the lower pedestrian path that doesn't provide much of an escape option in case of skunk encounter.  I've actually altered my running route a couple of times to make sure I don't interrupt any of these stinky little critters during their morning routine!

The tail end of my run (ha, ha... pun intended...) took me up Front Street to the R Street pedestrian over-crossing of I-5 and back home to Q Street.  The City of Sacramento's Animal Care Services is located on Front Street, just across from the Towe Auto Museum:


I'm rather fond of the City Shelter, as both Calypso and Captain Jack came to us from this facility, and they're wonderful companions.  I often wish we could adopt more kitties, but having an equal number of felines and humans in our household seems to be the perfect composition for our family, at least for now.

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