Sickness, Spiders, and Vultures

Sounds like a happy title for a post, no?

Well. I spent the majority of Monday morning moving around some mammal traps. I had some in the woods and in some heavily vegetated areas which probably wasn't the best idea. And before you say, "Man! What kind of biologist is this? Trying to catch Kangaroo Rats in a wooded area?!?" let me just point out that a K. rat had been caught in that area before - recently before. Not in my mammal trap, mind you, but in the drift fences we've set up there.

But, after several weeks and no rats, I gave up and decided that the one rat that was caught in the drift fence was probably lost. I moved them to a new spot called the "Hunter's 80," and I added some great new bait made of oats, chunky PB, and unshelled salty nuts. Who could resist that? However, based on previous experiences, I wouldn't let myself get too optimistic. And on Tuesday morning, I was rewarded with another Kangaroo rat in one of the newly moved traps. It was another little girl - this time 3.4 ounces and 9.5 inches long. Her tail, exactly like the other one, was 5.5 inches. I'm gonna have to see if this trend keeps up.

So, for those of you playing the home game, this means that everytime I've run the traps (at least for the past 2 times) I've caught a rat. I'm so totally on a roll! I didn't run the traps last night/this morning because I came down with a fever and throat infection.

Who knows why? Well, I kind of do. But the point is, on Monday evening I realized that every time I swallowed it felt like I was swallowing shards of glass. Tuesday morning came around and I swallowed even larger shards of glass. I went to work feeling woozy and ache-y, and at lunch I took my temperature and sure enough I was running a fever. Emily suggested I get to a doctor asap. She also suggested I stop touching things in her office (and promptly started following me around with a disinfectant wipe...).

So I made some calls and soon found myself being subjected to what Alva calls a hospital. Now, I've enjoyed the dubious services of Goddard at OU, so I wasn't expecting much. For instance, I certainly wasn't expecting the registration "office" to be a trailer in the parking lot. I definitely wasn't expecting the nurse. Once I made it into the doctor's room, she came in wheeling a blood pressure machine. She puts in right beside the sterilized bed and tries to turn it on. She tries again. Then she says, "Why won't this turn on?". I pointedly look at the plug wrapped around the back of the machine. She kind of laughs and looks around for a plug in. "I'm not used to doing this," she tells me. What, I think, being a nurse? She explains further that normally she's in ER. Haha. I can only imagine.

The doctor (whoops! sorry - the PA) comes in and we introduce each other. He takes the stick, pushes down my tongue and says, "Wow! They're really red and swollen." (He later received the Observation Award for the day). He quickly writes me a prescription for a Z-pack and tells me that he thinks it might be strep, but he isn't sure. Need I mention here that that's exactly what I said to the nurse when she asked me what was wrong?

But I shouldn't complain. He did what I needed him to do: got me in and out quickly and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic.

I'm still feeling a little puny. But no more fever and the shards are definitely getting smaller.

This morning I went to check the drift fences. There are two that I check. One is north of the Hwy, on the side of the road. I like that one. Not too many spiders. Lots of ants though (I have to be on the ball with my checking of this trap, otherwise the ants will demolish any live thing in there. I've found one lizard skeleton and lots of shells of grasshoppers and half eaten spiders. mmm - protein!). The other is South of headquarters in the woods. Lots and lots of spiders with lots and lots of webs that I walk through to get to the traps. I was walking through such a web and grimacing like I always do when I notice a tickle in my left glove. I look down. I see a nasty, horrible spider coming out of my glove.

How does a newly graduated (with Magna Cum Laude honors, even) biologist respond to this? Does she say, "Hmm....interesting. I wonder what prompted this creature to seek refuge in my glove..."? Does she put him in a container so she can accurately define him later, and then, if he is not already, put him in the refuge collection? Does she take pictures to document this close encounter with a member of a species which is thousands of years older than hers? Does she happily release him so he can continue to propagate his genes?

No. Of course not.

She screams and squeals like a hysterical girl (even giving a hysterical giggle) while she shakes off her glove, throws it on the ground, and stomps on it. Then, she pinches each of the fingers in the glove to make sure it's not in there, and if it is, it's died at least twice (they come back to life, you know). Then, while she's checking the traps, she keeps shuddering and slapping herself because she still feels it on her.

I'm not proud. But I am amused. Now that's it over, anyway.

And lastly, on my travels this morning, I notice a dead raccoon on the side of the road. As I continue with my travels up and down this road, I notice two things. One: the later it gets in the day, the more turkey vultures I see hovering over the road kill. Two: These vultures will not move - even for my big, bad refuge truck. I have to honk my horn loudly and obnoxiously. Then they will reluctantly move perhaps a grand total of 10 feet, only to quickly return as soon as I've passed by. Three: (I guess there were 3 things I noticed) the raccoon keeps scooting across the road. When I come back from setting up my traps this evening, I notice the raccoon has finally made it to the other side of the road, and there is absolutely nothing left of the raccoon but it's skin. Seriously - it had been cleaned out. Makes me think about the similarity between ants and vultures.

But the difference is, the ants started on the lizards and other various creatures in the traps while they were still alive. Ants win the creepy award for the week.