Mr. Otter has arrived at our lake (Stallion/North Lake that is).   He arrived in the neighborhood sometime in late January or early February this year.  Several people living on the lake have seen him.  The little kids get very excited when seeing the otter.   He is a lone fresh water otter as far as we know.  He can really scoot as he comes on shore for a second and is gone in a flash; consequently it is hard to get a still photo of him.  I took some movie shots of the otter, which is about the only way to photograph the little dynamo.   He moves so fast that by the time one is ready to shoot he is gone from the viewfinder.

If I could get a good still shot, he might look something like this.

Mr. Otter slowed down

More wild animals in the 'hood

The webmaster got a report from a neighbor that she HEARD that there had been a group of teenagers dropped off in the neighborhood and they were stealing things from in cars. This happened last week, and they were in the BACK of our development.

They were caught, the story goes, because someone was leaving for work in the 4am time frame and saw them and called the police.

The message here is STAY ALERT, even in the middle of the night. Just because the neighborhood seems safe, that does not mean that we can't have outside visitors.

Also, keep your car locked, even in your driveway.

Wild Animals in the 'hood

On Sunday, April 15-07 at 6 pm a Bobcat broke through the screen around our pool and was inside our cage. It was obviously distraught at being inside and became frantic ruining five panels of screening before jumping through the screen and out. Why, I don't know, and fortunately we had just gone inside with our little dog.

Beware

We live at 2553 Appaloosa Trail,

Ken

Note:
Within a 24 hour period this weekend, I also saw a WOLF (scrawny, the size of a large dog / small deer) at 5 am when he/she set off the motion light out back, and later that day a BOBCAT -- about twice the size of a house cat. Living on the preserve, I didn't think much of it, except for what Ken said -- our snack-sized cat has a cat door to the lanai -- apparently wild animals are not too put off by porch screening!

Don -- former resident at 2448 Saddlewood Ln.

We can always tell when someone new has moved into the neighborhood! They put out their garbage the night before.  With all of our creatures using our trash as a buffet, new folks usually only do THAT one time. Raccoons have been known to carry tool kits to open garbage cans at night.

Recently some vultures have also been going after neighborhood trash during the day as well. You are urged us to use trash cans with lids whenever possible. Plastic bags used for trash are easily ripped open by crows, vultures and dogs.

We would like to have 100% participation this year at our annual meeting, however, history has shown that some years we have not been able to gather a quorum to conduct necessary business. When a quorum is not present, an annual meeting has to be re-scheduled before officers can "legally" be elected and even routine business can continue. Since that is both a nuisance and an expense to all homeowners (notification costs, etc.), we ask each year that you to submit a proxy (even if you plan to attend the meeting) as a backup plan, IN CASE, at the last minute, something keeps you from going to the meeting. The proxy that you send will not be used, or counted if you actually attend the meeting.

2/2001