h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You were lucky to have Megan come to your area. The animals look quite fond of her, and she of them.

She really seemed to love them all. Even the snake, though she protested.

Excellent photographs

Thanks, Bob!

photos like that really do inspire me. I might be afraid to snuggle up to a large cat or let a big snake twine around my arms and body, but when I see someone else being this comfortable with animals, I feel that there's hope for everyone.

I don't go quite as far as Saint Francis with his "Brother Sun, Sister Moon:" philosophy, but I think the world is much worse place because the rest of us have not honored his ideas.

(This comes form someone who doesn't have pets but admires the bumblebees that come to the flowers in his yard. I dearly love the furry little things.)

Bumblebees are way cute. One of the joys of spring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO2OQMTa6YM

Bless you, Dmitri. You're a really good guy. Now all I have to do is wrack my brain, trying to identify the plants with the blue flowers in that video.

(Yes, I need to get a life. Especially now that the season for flowers and bees is drawing to a close)

We went nuts with those flowers. They grow wild in the backyard and flower every spring. We even made the lawn guy cut around them so the bees could have them.

Finally, it was decided they were some kind of mint, based on the square shape of the stems.

Yeah, they look like mints. Your video is great, but not being able to smell the plants deprives us of a clue. Mints give off an obvious smell.

Thanks for sharing the photos and videos of Megan and the animals

"Megan clearly loves each and every one of the critters, except for the snake, which she treats with respect." - yes indeed!

I am grateful to the creatures that serve as ambassadors for the natural world, so they get looked after when they can't transition to the wild, and we get to understand more about them My favourite animal encounter was with a snowy owl that allowed us to stroke her soft oil-less feathers, very different in texture to other birds' feathers, so I particularly enjoyed seeing the Barred Owl with Megan

Yeah, that owl is very endearing, isn't he?

Screech owls and Great Horned Owls are prevalent in the Arnold Arboretum which is about three miles from where I live. They nest in forested areas, so I wish they would come to y neighborhood to eat the mice .

There might be some around. Megan said they fly so silently, 'that is the last sound a poor little mouse doesn't hear.'