The Wildlife

There are all sorts of strange and not so strange things out here.  The strangest things to see are definately the insects.  The most common of the oddities are what the Navajo refer to as Rain Bugs.  They look like these giant tanks of the insect world that have black and red bands going across their shells.  They are called Rain Bugs because according to tradition if you smash one it will cause rain.  This being a desert where people are very dependent on rain, well, lets just say I'm amazed they aren't extinct.

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Other strange insects I've seen, but unfortunately I have no pictures of them, a Stick Bug, which was very fascinating, looked exactly like a normal stick, except for the fact that it walked.  There was one bug that I have no idea what it was.  It's head was like an ant's and its body was similar to a bee's.  That isn't that strange until you relize that its head was the size of my thumb.

For a while I had an enormous spider as a roommate.  Everytime I spotted him he would go into a room or closet and hide in the most hard places for a human to reach.  It took a combination of broom and foot to settle the issue of who lived here.

Insects and giant spiders aren't all that's out here.  I've seen a coyote right here in the teacher housing.  Many teachers have also had to deal with rattlesnakes this year.  I've been fortunate not to have had that problem, but I'm still careful.

Also the livestock in some ways are more like wild animals than they are like livestock.  They are allowed to wander free with just the sheep dogs to guide them from place to place.  They are trained to not like humans and to run from them.  One night there were several cows that made their way into teacher housing and I was determined to get a picture.  The cows did not like that at all and they ran the moment I would get close enough.  I finally caught up with one of the cows, keeping my distance I shot this video.