Carie Juettner

Frisky Business

Spring has sprung here in North Texas. The trees are budding, the irises are blooming, and the animals are feeling frisky!

Gray fox in our back lot near a blooming redbud tree

In my last post, I shared what I’ve learned from volunteering with a wildlife organization about how interacting with animals (even with the best intentions) can often cause them harm. However, there are plenty of opportunities to observe cute critters from a safe distance. My favorite way to watch wildlife is with my nature cam.

My husband gave me a trail camera for my birthday in October, and it is truly the gift that keeps on giving. I’m lucky to live in a place frequented by lots of local wildlife. Although I’m in an urban area, my property, combined with my parents’ property right behind me, combined with the empty lots next door equals a few acres of animal oasis, complete with many trees, bushes, thickets, sheds, and structures that appeal to critters of all sorts. We have squirrels, rabbits, hawks, opossums, raccoons, crows, gray foxes, skunks, and even a coyote now and then. However, we try not to do anything to encourage coyotes to stick around. Here are some tips for keeping your home and pets safe from coyotes.

There are lots of animal trails and burrows around our place, so I move my camera to different spots in order to catch as much action as I can. Recently, I’ve captured several fun videos of frisky foxes, amorous opossums, and other cute critters getting ready to start their families this spring. Here are a few of them. Enjoy!

This mama opossum is gathering leaves for her nest. Look how she holds them in her tail!

Nesting mama

A striped skunk visited a few times.

After we saw the skunk, I put my little metal skunk in front of the camera, hoping to get a photo of the real one with it.

At first, everyone EXCEPT the skunk was curious about the metal critter.

Although some were more rude to it than others…

Finally, the skunk returned, and I got my photo of them together.

The chase is on! This amorous opossum is feeling frisky!

Looking for love…

This fox definitely has a spring in its step.

Wait for it…

And here are some spirited squirrels.

So squirrelly!

But the most exciting news I have to share this spring is that the fox we call Finley is pregnant! Finley was born here last year, so I’ve had the pleasure of watching her grow up. She and her mate, Frisky (seen previously peeing on my skunk statue) are expecting their first litter any day now. I’m so excited! (And a little nervous.)

Here’s a video of Frisky and Finley together.

Gray foxes mate for life.

And here is a picture of Finley that shows her baby bump alongside a photo of Frisky when he heard the news that he was going to be a father.

I wish the happy couple the best of luck with their new family and hope I get to share videos of adorable baby foxes soon!

Happy Spring!

One more thing…

Since I started posting photos from my trail cam, I’ve received a lot of questions asking what kind we have, so here are the details:

We have a Tactacam Reveal X and the Tactacam Solar Panel battery. This is the only nature cam I’ve ever had, so I have nothing to compare it to, but we really like it. The photos and videos are excellent quality. We have it set where it takes two photos and then a 15-second video when triggered. It sends the first photo to the app on my phone. We have the lowest cost app plan ($5/month) so it only sends 250 photos. After we exceed that limit (and we often do) the camera still records, but we don’t see any of the footage until we go get the memory card out of it. We have two memory cards so that we can swap them out and always have one in the camera.

If you enjoy watching wildlife, I recommend investing in a camera. You might be surprised at who visits your yard!

When We Know Better, We Can Do Better

If you’ve been following my blog or newsletter, you know that I recently started volunteering with a local wildlife organization. This is a post I made on Facebook this week, sharing some of the important information I’ve learned about what to do and not do when it comes to interacting with animals. I’m reposting it here in hopes that it will reach more readers so that we can all be better neighbors with the critters around our homes.

Last Friday, I finally got to do something I’ve been excited about for months. I got to bottle feed a baby raccoon. He was about eight weeks old and so cute and wiggly. Watching his little raccoon hands grip the bottle melted my heart. I’d been looking forward to this experience ever since I started volunteering with wildlife and was so happy to get to do it.

However, the reason why I got to feed this little kit, and the reason why I’ll get to feed many more over the next few months is not a good one. This baby is an orphan, motherless and isolated from his litter. I don’t know his particular story, but it likely involves cars, traps, poisons, or other negative human interactions.

I’ve only been volunteering with North Texas Wildlife Center for a few months, but I’ve already learned so much about how to care for animals, including what NOT to do, and my eyes have been opened to mistakes I’ve made in the past when it came to animal encounters. But I try not to judge my past self. NTXWC’s motto is “When we know better, we can do better.” I know better now, and I want to do better by sharing that knowledge with others.

Here are a few tips I’ve learned about what NOT to do:

If you find a sick or injured animal, don’t try to care for it yourself. Despite the best of intentions, you could do more harm than good. Instead, contact a local wildlife rehabber.
Don’t use rodentcide. Many of the sick foxes, owls, and other predators we get at the center are suffering from secondary poisoning due to eating a poisoned rat or mouse.
It is so tempting to put out food for cute wildlife, especially if you have a trail cam. (I have done this.) One of the big problems with this is that it can spread contagious diseases, like distemper which is really bad right now in raccoons. The problem with the food is that it attracts multiple animals together to one place who wouldn’t normally interact. It’s like have a covid party for wildlife. The idea that I could risk my beautiful Finley fox’s health by enticing her to share a food bowl with other species cured me of my feeding habits.
Trapping and relocating wildlife is not usually a humane solution. (Past me did not know this.) First, animals left in traps for long often suffer injuries from trying to get out. Second, when you put them in an unfamiliar place, they will have trouble finding food and shelter and will be vulnerable. Third, there’s a good chance you are separating a mama from her litter and have just orphaned her babies.
Unfortunately, many pest control companies who claim to be humane don’t really have the animals’ best interest at heart. NTXWC recently got a litter of 5 tiny baby raccoons whose mom was trapped and “relocated” by a pest control company. When the homeowner asked, “What if she has babies?” they told her raccoons don’t have babies this time of year. WRONG. The babies were found later after their mom had been taken away. Whether the company was lying or just not knowledgeable, either way it meant a litter of orphans.

So, what SHOULD we do instead?

– Enjoy and respect wildlife but try not to interfere.
– Hire responsible tree-trimming and pest control companies.
– If you find a sick, injured, or orphaned animal, contact a wildlife rehabber.
– Help NTXWC take care of animals by making a donation or buying some adorable swag from their shop or volunteering your time.

If you have any questions, please ask me and I’ll find someone smart who can answer them for you.

Helpful Links:

DFW Wildlife – Their hotline (972-234-9453) is available every single day from 7AM-10PM. If you find a sick or injured animal, they can connect you to with a nearby rehabber.
North Texas Wildlife Center – Learn more about the organization where I volunteer and make a donation.
NTXWC Swag Shop – Get a cute wildlife t-shirt, hoodie, tote bag, etc. Part of the proceeds go to the organization.
911 Wildlife – This pest control company will help you keep animals out of your home without harming them. They are truly humane and work closely with NTXWC.

Thank you so much for reading this! In exchange for your time, I offer you a picture of a box of adorable hissing baby opossums.

They were only in this small container for a few minutes while I cleaned their incubator.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will cover the less serious and more playful side of wildlife, including some cute videos of the critters in my yard. 🥰

Seam: A Valentine, of Sorts

Today I’d like to share a short story with you. But first, some background.

Hubby and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Some years I forget about it completely until I find myself in line at the grocery store behind men holding roses and chocolates or can’t figure out why there’s such a long wait at the Italian restaurant I randomly chose for dinner. I have nothing against Valentine’s Day or the people who choose to celebrate on February 14^th, it’s just not for us. I guess I’m not much of a romantic. And I’m definitely not a romance writer. When I try to write romance, it usually turns into horror. Take my story, “Makeup” which was published on the Tales to Terrify podcast a few years ago. No happy ending there. Then again, that’s what you get when you choose to date a clown.

If you’re looking for a sweet story of matrimonial bliss to read to your partner via candlelight over a glass of wine, this isn’t it. This is more of an anti-valentine. In fact, when I shared the first draft of this story with my husband several years ago, he told me he wanted a divorce. I smiled because, to a horror writer, that’s great feedback.

Things are good now. Hubby and I have been happily married for almost 14 years. He’s come to terms with the fact that I enjoy writing horror, and no, he is not trying to blink “HELP” at you in morse code, so please stop asking. He’s fine.

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate it. Happy Anti-Valentine’s Day to those who actively oppose it. Happy Wednesday to those who don’t care one way or the other. And happy reading to anyone who decides to check out this little “love” story. I hope you enjoy it.

Seam
by Carie Juettner

Their wedding quilt is white with red thread framing squares that form a pattern of interlocking circles. Some squares are vibrant, some pale, some sleek, some soft. They are pieces of their lives before marriage. Her grandmother’s dishtowel. His mother’s apron. Her father’s tie. His uncle’s bandana. Her Girl Scout uniform. His soccer jersey. She made it the month before their wedding, almost seven years ago.

The white is still fresh and bright, the colored squares unchanged. It’s something they fold at the foot of the bed or drape across the rocking chair at Christmastime. A showpiece, not for everyday use.

She runs her finger along the edge of one circle, feels the hills and valleys of each stitch. Her husband, beside her in the bed, heaves a deep sigh. He’s still asleep, but barely. He’s in that space between. She’s more receptive in that space. To dreams, to ideas, to long-forgotten song lyrics. Just the other day, as she was waking up from a nap, a tune drifted through her mind, and suddenly she was back in college, in a grungy coffee shop, ignoring the cover band she’d come to see, staring instead at the scruffy young guy in front of her. The first time she saw him, she’d wanted to put her arms around him. Hold onto him. Not let go.

Her husband sighs again. He’s close to waking up. She scoots over and drapes her arm over his torso. She takes a deep breath, then slowly relaxes into the curve of his back. A smile stretches her lips as his warmth floods through her. She hesitates, then rests her chin against his shoulder. This. This is what she loves—the way their forms fit so neatly. The firmness of his buttocks against her thighs. The curve of his back against her breasts. The feel of his chest against the palm of her hand. The way his shoulder makes the perfect pillow. She is in heaven. She stretches her toes, touches them to the backs of his heels, snuggles closer and inhales the earthy scent of his neck. She gently trails a finger down his sternum, then—

He jerks awake. He pulls himself out of her grasp, swings his legs over the side of the bed, stands up.

“Wait,” she says, pressing her hand to the quickly cooling sheet that still holds the shape of his body. “Couldn’t we, for just a few minutes… cuddle?”

He stretches and shrugs in a way that might mean he didn’t hear her. Then he kisses her on the forehead and goes into the bathroom. In a few minutes she hears the shower running.

She sits up, her fingers finding the tiny red hills and valleys of stitches. She reaches into the drawer of her nightstand and rummages around until her finger finds the pointy end of the seam ripper. She slides the sharp tip beneath the stitching around a patch of cloth from the dress she wore on their first date, and pulls. The rip is a satisfying sound.

That night, after dinner, they watch TV together. She sits in the center of the couch, he beside her. She tucks her feet up underneath her body and leans over, letting her cheek fall on his shoulder, her body rest against him. He pulls his arm up—to put it around her? to curl her more tightly against his chest?—then uses it to push himself off the couch. She has to catch herself from falling over while he nudges the thermostat lower, then sits in the recliner across the room.

She goes to the bedroom, gets the quilt, huddles into a corner of the couch and spreads it across her knees. At a commercial break, when he gets up to go to the bathroom, she pulls her tool from her pocket. Rip. Rip. Rip. How easily the thread comes undone.

She sleeps alone in the same bed where he slumbers. She sits alone on the same couch where he lounges. She lives alone in the same house where he moves, breathes, radiates heat that dissipates, wasted. She longs for contact—skin on skin, the warmth of two bodies connected. He needs space. He likes it cold. His touch never lingers.

This is not what marriage is. This is not a joining of two lives. During the day, she yanks at the sutures of the quilt. Rip. Rip. Rip. A piece of her favorite skirt clings to a square of his jeans. She nudges them, and they separate.

That night, she makes him a special dinner.

“What are we celebrating?” he asks.

“Us.” She smiles at him.

He downs his champagne in a few gulps, is nodding off before dessert is served. She puts him to bed, sips her coffee as she watches his limbs become heavy, his breath deep. She slides into the bed and tucks her body around his. He doesn’t flinch. The tools are in her pocket, but she allows herself this moment, enjoying the warmth and the closeness. She wraps her arms tighter around him and smiles. This feels so good, but she knows it won’t last. She knows things will go back to normal tomorrow, unless she does something.

True commitment means a bond, the joining of two lives. It shouldn’t be ripped apart so easily.

Her hand reaches for her pocket.

A tug pulls her awake.

“What the—? What’s going on?” His voice is hoarse.

She opens her eyes. His face is so close. It must be time to get up, she thinks.

Another tug. Harder.

“Oh god! What have you done?”

She looks down at the red stitches threading out of the skin along her ribs and into his and back again. It’s tender, a little sore, but strong. The seam will hold.

She drapes her arm around him, leans her head onto his shoulder.

“Good morning, my love,” she says. “What should we do today?”