This is Scooter. We have owned him for over eight years. He is a mix of who knows what. He's always been a very grouchy guy but we love him. His life in Brownsville consisted of being in the house with us except for bathroom and exercise walks. To put it plainly he was a house dog!

Our other dog is Einstein. We have owned him for a little over a year. He is the complete opposite of Scooter. He is always happy and ready to play. The months we owned him in Brownsville we also considered him a house dog. Most of his time was spent getting into mischief and begging for attention.

In Brownsville, when outside, they were always on a leash. That changed when we arrived here in Oaxaca. There is little or no traffic here by the house so they get to run free. They don't roam. They stick close to the house but have taken well to their freedom. 

They both have become great watch dogs. They alert us when someone or something is near the house. The drastic change has been watching our little domesticated house dogs morph into killers. Because we live in the country there is a plentiful amount of rats. Not the kind you find in the city, but rats non the less. Our house is sealed off pretty well so we don't have a problem inside. The patio side is not sealed so it is accessible to the rats. Every morning the dogs make the rounds looking for intruders. I'll not be too graphic but their manner of disposing of our unwanted guests was quite shocking. Einstein has proven to be the better hunter. He loves the hunt. They will both spend hours in the patio hunting down their prey. Einstein loves to parade around with his prey in his mouth. He is usually pretty obedient but refuses to relinquish his catch. I even tried prying one out of his mouth but he refused. He didn't growl but stubbornly refused to give it up.  I have to tempt him with something more savory to get him to drop his catch. Word has apparently gotten around outside because our rat problem has all but diminished. Still the boys make the rounds each morning. 

Another type of intruder is the fruit fly. They are very prolific here. We bought fly strips but they were pretty ineffective. One evening we'd had company and drank a few shots of mezcal. At the end of the night a shot glass of mezcal was left on the table. In the morning there were fruit flies in the shot glass. We have learned that an open shot glass filled with mezcal is the perfect control method. Here in Oaxaca cremas are made from mezcal. They are thick and sweet and come in a multitude of flavors. As an experiment we set out a shot of crema but discovered the straight mezcal is more popular. Of course we felt pretty high and mighty about our discovery so we wanted to enlighten our friends. We were knocked down a peg when we found that our method is common knowledge. In fact the fruit flies here are called burrachos (drunkards) because of their propensity to like mezcal. Anyway, our fruit fly problem has been resolved.

At the top of our unwanted guest list are scorpions. I'm sure there are many species here (too lazy to investigate); the two most popular     are a small brown one that we've seen reach about an inch and a half, and a black one that we've seen reach to about four and a half inches. I did research years ago and found that scorpion bites here in the valley are non-lethal. They do hurt though. Over the years Beth has been bitten twice and I once. The initial sensation is one of being poked with a needle. The pain is acute for several minutes. Eventually the bite resembles a bee sting with swelling for a few days. When we first moved into Don Pedrillo, we expected to be inundated with them. After all we were moving into their habitat. Surprisingly we saw only one. It has been the change in weather (colder), that has increased sightings here in the house. In our five months here we have only seen five in the house but it can be very unnerving when you  run across one in the safety of your home especially the big black ones. Again our dogs have come to the rescue. I noticed one evening that Scooter's bark was more than playful. I could tell that he was uncomfortable. I looked into the space that had drawn his attention and saw a black scorpion. He has alerted us on two other occasions. The black scorpion looks more ominous but the small brown one actually carries a more powerful sting. I read that homes with cats or dogs are less apt to receive unwanted visitations from scorpions. It must be true because we are certainly in scorpion country. I saved the first two scorpions and ended up giving them to a friend. Some people here enjoy putting unusual things in their mezcal. I felt a bit bad about that so now we catch and release. 

Near the house we see a great variety of birds. Most are very colorful. Hummingbirds are occasionally seen as are hawks and eagles. There are quite a few birds that are a type of vulture. Haven't seen a snake yet but wasps are plentiful. We've seen several owls returning home at night and often hear them hooting. Coyotes come down from the mountains to hunt at night but we've yet to see one.  There are lots of rabbits and of course the field rats. There are insects galore! They are everywhere. Most have beautiful designs. Even the beetles have unique patterns. Ant mounds are everywhere. The other night while driving down our driveway Beth and I spotted a large and small animal (probably mother and child) they immediately fled but we did make out that they were  from the cat family. We've questioned friends but no one knows what they were.