Mutual of Alexandria's Wild Kingdom!

It's amazing, I think, for us to have found such a wonderful little piece of paradise inside the Beltway.  At our previous condo we rented, we were spoiled with wooded views out all of our windows, including daily sightings of deer.

Five (or so) female deer seen from our balcony

When moving from the condo to our new home, we were most sad about not having such beautiful wooded views and would miss the family of deer.  Well, I'm happy to say, the new place isn't as disappointing as originally feared.  In fact, we do have enough trees that I feel like we have "woods".  And!  I've seen deer.  Actually, I've had many animal sightings.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of my encounters since Dexter and I generally see them late at night when it's very dark.  We've seen deer two or three times, a large (twice the size of dexter) raccoon on two occasions, and our neighborhood coyote at least three different times in our backyard.

Our leafless trees and the ever elusive...bichon!

I shouldn't forget the birds and squirrels.  Amanda's parents bought us a suet bird feeder and suet block of seed as a house warming present.  We installed it over Thanksgiving weekend and it really increased the bird and squirrel activity in our little haven.  They went through the entire thing in just two days!  I've seen many woodpeckers, a blue jay and many little birds I can't identify...yet.

Random picture of Dexter

We're also very happy to have private outdoor space.  Dexter loves to run and play.  Our next door neighbors recently got a puppy (Wesley) and he and Dexter love to romp.  Dexter gets so excited when we hear them outside he goes to the door and whines.  They'll run and play and chase each other until they both lay down in the grass/moss panting.  It's adorable.

Dexter and Wesley eating sticks

On a sad note, our neighbors are moving.  I'm sure Dexter will miss Wesley very much.  It's such a treat for Dexter to have a friend to chase around in the backyard. I think we may end up getting another puppy of our own.  Maybe in the spring.  It's still being discussed, but Amanda's really for it.

End.