My Wife the Naturalist

When I mention the Santa Clarita Valley most people would not think of the extensive wildlife we have. Some might think that if there were wildlife in the valley it would be up in the canyons like Bouquet, Sand or Placerita even. Well while most of the valley sleeps the animals our out in full force.
When my wife and I first started delivering the paper this was quite cool or as the Ardo twins would say “it’s sick”. We would see rabbits, raccoons, bats, hawks and an occasional coyote. It was like delivering newspapers in the old Lion Country Safari theme park. Well lets fast forward to today and the uniqueness of seeing the animals has worn off. Now the rabbits more seem like a target for me, Mario Andretti newspaper delivery guy. Now the rabbits seem to run everywhere except out of my way. When we first started the route all you would hear from our car is “how cute” and “Wow! Tom look at that!” Now all you hear is “Thomas your doing that on purpose”, referring to the fact that the rabbits are running into the cars path of travel. You will also hear something to the affect of “Thomas Patrick (my full formal name, once again not a good thing)your driving crazy” in reference to the fact that I am trying to avoid the rabbits. So knowing this you can only imagine how Suzi reacted to a hawk catching and eating a rabbit. She was really depressed from the fact that she could hear the rabbit dying. All she kept saying was “Stupid hawk, Stupid hawk”. All I could think of right then was Elton John singing Circle of Life from Lion King. I know, I know, way to go bonehead, way to show compassion in this difficult time for your wife. Well pray for me so that I won’t kill ant rabbits. I have a feeling that not only Suzi would be mad at me, but Lisa and Kevin might be a little upset at all the rabbit guts on the car.