Tuesday, December 09, 2008

I Do NOT Believe You Just Kissed Me With That Mouth!

Anybody have a doggie TicTac?

Here is the dead deer from previous posts at the one month mark. She is greatly reduced in volume, but apparently still intriguing ... at least to Bear.
Although there has been an occasional suspiciously stinky muzzle ... none of my dogs seem to have rolled in the deer remains, a fact I credit to the spiky smilax vines that are growing all around and through it.
You don't wanna romp in smilax, believe me.

I'll "dead deer" update us again in January ... I think monthly is often enough, now that most of the dramatic changes have occurred.

It's worth noting that smilax is a favorite forage of whitetail deer, so many of the atoms from this unfortunate deer could easily wind up first in the smilax vines, and then in the new fawns that will grace PFHQ this spring.

Think of springy spotted fawns bouncing through the grass ... see, don't you feel better?


I love the original "Alien" movie. When it first came out, it was, to me, a white knuckled clench the armrest sort of movie.
These stinkhorn fungi so resemble the egg pods in that movie that I wonder if they weren't the inspiration.

Stinkhorns get their name due to their habit of smelling like ... um, ... dead deer in front yards.
This attracts flies, which spread the spores of the stinkhorn, ensuring new generations of stinky fungi.

Smilax recycling dead deer, stinkhorn fungi recycling the mulch in my flower beds ... it's all stinky good.

Maybe not great, if it's happening a few yards from your front porch as in my case, but in the grand scheme of things ... it's good.

7 comments:

threecollie said...

Nothing like recycling!

robin andrea said...

It is all stinky good. I remember when the foodtv guy Emeril would say he wished there were smellivision, but I have to say at this moment I'm glad there isn't.

Anonymous said...

May I just echo what threecollie said! Yep..

And I'll never forget the first time I came across a stinkhorn up in Hawthorne. Oh my word!! We had them around the property here and there, but I just let them be.

kathy a. said...

glad it's all at your place, where it is properly appreciated!

R.Powers said...

3C,
How true.

Robin,
I would mute the smellovision feature at this time :)

Laura,
Really the fungus is worse than the deer.

Kathy A,
Actually, I think I'm the only one here who gets a charge out of this stuff.

kathy a. said...

well, you have a very understanding family. probably best expressed by the canine contingent, who still want to kiss you all the time, no matter where their mouths have been. and you probably let them. [i'm extrapolating here, based on my own family experiences + your blog persona.]

R.Powers said...

Kathy A,
nail on the head.