I'm trying to stay rational - but can anybody explain this to me?

[BeachBaby]

Okay....all of this occured in the last 20 hours:

My son (9yo) comes home from school crying and holding a tiny potted plant; the plant, however, was not gonna make it. It was a baby lupine, and the top had been bent. I asked him how it happened, and he told me that "2 really mean girls" from his class "flicked" it, and wouldn't stop until it was broken. (I already have every intention of talking to the teacher about this - these 2 girls have been a problem since the start of the school year).

This minor event seemed benign enough, right? Besides, it's Friday! No work, no school for a couple days; it's sunny and warm outside in South Jersey; it's all good. I figured that my boys and I would simply head out to the nursery and get some more seeds, and plant our own lupines. No big deal. It would be fun.

(Before I continue, I want to note that I recently moved into an old farmhouse. With the exception of getting used to mice in the house, I can't say I have any complaints. I'm surrounded by 100 acres of farmland - complete with wildlife, wildflowers and the occasional redneck driving by in a pick-up truck, complete with gun rack and God Bless America decals. :) )

Alright.....so around 6pm yesterday (Friday), the boys and I are coming down the steps of the deck, heading to my car, when my older son (12yo) says "Mom - check it out! The bunnies must be getting used to us! She didn't even run when we walked by!" I looked over, and sure enough, there was a bunny (not quite a baby, but not an adult either) just sitting there. Its head was laying on the ground, as if she couldn't hold it up. She was breathing, but VERY slow. Very odd - no blood, no torn fur, nothing that would tell me she lost in a fight of some sort. I asked my boyfriend to check on her while the boys and I were out, and we would go from there when I got home.

We got home about an hour later, and it was starting to get dark. The bunny hadn't changed her position at all, and the breathing was the same. Because I didn't want her to become the entree of the barn owls' menu for the evening, I found a box, put a blanket on the bottom, and then scooped her up and into the box. I knew she wasn't going to make it overnight - it was quite apparent her neck was broken.

She died a couple of hours later. Very bizarre experience for me - I've helped many an animal along the way, but this was the first time where I couldn't figure out what had happened to the animal.

My boyfriend and I went to bed around midnight. At around 1am, we were both awakened to the sound of a car horn honking - but not like an alarm. Just one, long, LOUD, honk. Remember, I live on a farm - there's NO ONE around. Boyfriend threw on his clothes, mentally preparing himself for a possible altercation with someone who shouldn't be here. I threw on my robe and followed him downstairs. Horn is still going full-blast.

Turns out the horn was boyfriend's Jeep Cherokee. Absolutely nothing we can think of, would constitute how just out of nowhere, the horn would go berserk. And man, was it loud. He jacked up the hood, and eventually just disconnected the battery. He was pissed, I was freaked, and it took us until about 3am to fall back asleep again.

Today - 9am: I head downstairs to get the coffee going, see what my kids want to eat, etc. They have a playroom where they hang out, and they were playing videogames when I got downstairs. I was standing in the doorway, asking them what they wanted to eat. As they were thinking it over, I glanced out one of the windows. A bird - a starling - was flying full-force toward the house. I watched, absolutely horrified, as this beautiful creature slammed into the window, bounced off the screen, and landed in the garden below. The kids were freaked, I was freaked. I ran outside to see where he went. He was laying on his side, head still moving around, but the rest of his body was motionless. My younger son said "Mom - what is going on around here????" The bird died by the time I got the kids fed.

I'm supposed to be leaving here in two hours to go to Philly for the Phillies/Cubs game - and I gotta tell ya, as rational-thinking as I usually am, I'm wondering if I should stay put. Or if I should get the hell outta here.

Please - no teasing. Jeep horn aside, two animals dying in such bizarre ways has me shaken up; even worse is that my boys were witness to both - and I have no reasonable explanation for them.

[flvegan]

1. "The power of Christ compels you..."

Repeat this 100 times.

[Lars39]

2. Nature in all its glory.

I kept waiting for,"...and then led the 2 handcuffed little girls to the squad car." :yoiks:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

26. I just knew she would look out to find those two girls in the jeep!

GMTA :toast:

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. Don't worry.

Unfortunately, I tend to find one or two bunnies every Spring in some stage of injury. They have very sensitive constitutions, and they usually end up succumbing to their injuries.

The alarm on the jeep could have been something as simple as a deer brushing against the vehicle.

Birds around here are notorious for flying into windows.

Remember that Spring is just arriving, the weather is changing, and nature is freaky sometimes.

[BeachBaby]

6. Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.....

the season is changing, and sometimes the little animals don't adapt quickly enough.

As for the Jeep horn, it wasn't the alarm. He doesn't have an alarm. Just one, long-winded (about 20 minutes) blast of the horn. Boyfriend is still freaked out - and so am I.

[LeftyFingerPop]

7. Hmmm....The horn?

Now that is indeed unusual.

Just chalk it up to a malfunction....but it is creepy.

[DarkTirade]

4. Poultrygeists.

The spirits of angry chickens coming back to roost.

It's a common problem in rural areas.

[avasmom]

8. very funny

if a bit insensitve to the fears of our friend...

that is several posts i've read of yours that are really quite witty.

great sense of humor there...

poultrygeists... hah! i'm gonna use that one and claim it as my own.

[DarkTirade]

11. Sometimes when you have things this bizarre happening, you just have to laugh.

Otherwise you'll go nuts thinking too hard about something that's that unexplainable.

Unless it actually IS poultrygeists, in which case voila. It's been explained. :)

[avasmom]

5. you are understandably shaken

its easy enough for others to laugh at your situation when they've not experienced it. you might be interpreting things in a negative way because you are not accustomed to the rural life (?) but as a country girl i can tell you that for all those things to happen in such a short time span IS a bit odd. it is perfectly understandable for you to be disturbed by it.

under what circumstances did the last owner leave your farm (just curious). i do believe that good/bad energy attracts like, and perhaps once the first thing happened (your sons plant) the other things followed...

i would be concerned that a person is harassing you except for the bird, which couldn't have been controlled by a person.

there are many ways to cleanse bad energy, to improve the light/good energy.

i'm very curious to know about the prior owner. i will keep you in my healing thoughts.

[NMDemDist2]

9. welcome to DU avasmom!

I missed the 'welcome' thread, but you really need to get yourself a star and join us over here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=245


:hi:

[avasmom]

16. a star?

what the heck does that mean? is this the secret handshake?

;-)

-t-

[NMDemDist2]

19. see next to my name I have a gold star?

means you contribute to the site.

even $5 will buy a star if that'll all you can afford and it gives you the ability to turn off the google ads, improved search capabilities and access to all the 'donor' forums like Astrology, Cooking and Baking, Gardening, Pets, Photography etc etc

there's lots to this place :bounce:

you can donate here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/donate.html

[avasmom]

22. will do!

didn't know... thanks for the info! these are the things you don't know until somebody tells you... and i'm too proud to ask ava. she already thinks i'm a technotard. :blush:

[NMDemDist2]

24. one more handy hint

we have a lot of inside jokes and phrases that won't make much sense if you haven't been around very long. BUT....

most of them are explained in our handy DU Glossary we keep hidden over in the research forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=190&mesg_id=4951

ooooppppsss seems somebody deleted the glossary :rofl:

I alerted it and it will be restored, in the mean time the link above will take you to the next closest thing

[skygazer]

10. Just a series of events

Short or fuse or something in the jeep. Bunny may have done something similar to bird - bolted and hit something, breaking its neck (I had a friend who lost a dog like this - the dog was chasing something and ran headlong into a tree, breaking its neck).

As someone else, pointed out, its spring and animals are out and about.

Don't let your kids see your freaking out - I think that is probably more traumatic to them than seeing the events themselves.

[avasmom]

13. i just thought of something else

skygazer's post reminded me of a car i had- it was green, and for some reason animals constantly flew/ran/bounced into it- it was as if the color/shine/finish simply made the car invisible to them!

is there any chance the house is such a color?


and i agree - don't let the kids get freaked out. it doesn't help things at all... kids have great power because of their ability to think positive and show blind faith. harness it- focus them on positive things!

[DarkTirade]

15. I drive a dark car, and I just had three near-misses/hits involving animals in the last week.

(four if you count stupid humans walking right in front of me on a 55 MPH speed limit road as animals. :P )

The one that really freaked me out was the one hit though. A bird just flew right under my tire. I was on the highway going somewhere in the 60-70mph range and suddenly there was this little flash of motion, a little thump, and a whole lot of feathers in my rearview mirror. :(

[stuntcat]

17. yah yah, my answer too

I mean that's what I'd assume.. and just hope it's over! HOPE. (Just one or two more freaky things though and I'd be outa there.)
Sweet little animal death is worrying for kids. Going to school with horrible shitheads is tough too.

[DarkTirade]

12. Seriously though, I've noticed some strange happenings with the animals here too.

But like the person above me said, it's spring. The animals are starting to come out, so you'll notice them more now.

And on that note, I need to check my make-shift peanut butter trap in the basement. There was a chipmunk running around there yesterday so I set up a bucket with a dab of peanut butter in there in the hopes of catching it and setting it loose outside. Don't want the poor little thing stuck down there if it can't find whatever hole it came in.

[avasmom]

14. my evil kitteh

kiko kills the chipmunks. its hard to watch, but i can't stop it.

[DarkTirade]

18. I'm a cat person, but I've never owned one. That's one of the main reasons.

I like the little critters too much. Especially frogs and lizards, and I just spent the last 20 years in Florida where cats can live feral by surviving on the huge roaches, frogs and lizards that live there. Now I don't mind if they kill roaches. In fact, I wish they'd hurry up and get rid of all of them. But just leave my poor l'il froggies alone. :(

[avasmom]

20. i love all the animals...

i try to keep the carnage to a minimum by feeding the cats plenty... fortunately, the critters seem to know this is kitty territory (three cats) and stay away. one cat is too fat-n-lazy to kill anything, another is old and stays inside most of the time.

but kiko is a tyrant. a cute tyrant- he's so proud of himself when he kills the cuddlies. oh well- what to do?

[DarkTirade]

21. It's his nature.

I'm sure if I was small and fuzzy and carnivorous, I'd be the same way. :)

[Ava]

29. i've rescued several so far this year

poor chipmunks.. although his beheading of bunnies has me worried he's a member of al catda

[XemaSab]

23. I'd be rattled by that

:scared:

[lost-in-nj]

25. 2 words

Amityville Horror

how's the fly population there???


:scared: :scared:

can ya do me a favor???


next week when you get in your car to go to Delaware can you turn around
and ask who ever it is to get out of the car and stay home??

no uninvited guests!!!!


:rofl: :rofl:

lost

I would check the history of the house....
are you anywhere near the Jersey Devil????

[Tuesday Afternoon]

27. The car horn is the really mystifying thing here...

I have lived and worked in the country a long time. Strange things occur in the animal kingdom. I think animals are very confused with the nature of the world in this age of pollution overload.
Birds will do that, for whatever reason. I wonder if a cat or a larger predator got hold of the rabbit. :shrug:

Stay calm...you might want to "cleanse" the house ....burn some sage :hug:

http://www.thesoulelement.com/energy_clearing.htm

[quip]

28. You need a hug!

:hug:

Coincidence is never comprehensible; it know no logic. Impossible odds happen every time someone wins the lottery. It's weird and creepy, but only insofar as you convince yourself that it is. So, JGD, in a word:

fahgettaboutit! :P :hi:

(I thought the 2 girls were going to end up being twins from "The Shining") :scared: :D

[TZ]

30. Random events and you live in the country now

My brother in law calls spring the "season of death"..thats because he has terriers of course that kill all the young animals that get into the yard.
With all the animals having babies its gonna be natural that a lot of them are gonna die too. There is a saying about nature being "red in tooth and claw". Upsetting but you will probably see a lot more of this as the season goes on.

As for the Jeep..I'm betting a critter got in there and did something too...

[RainDog]

31. sounds like a regular spring day to me

the rabbit was probably killed by a cat or something like... cats don't always kill their prey in one strike. I've had birds flying in my house that my cats brought in not quite dead, but very injured.

every spring birds smack into the windows on the east side of my house. they're blue jays, as far as I know, and they are attacking their reflection b/c they think it's another male blue. A few haven't made it, but most seem to bounce off and go on.

one day I was reading in my hammock and fell asleep. I woke up and a doe was standing right next to me, staring at me. couldn't have been 3 ft tall. one time I feel asleep on my couch, which is right under a bank of windows. I had my windows open... had had a nice day outside... and when I woke up, a baby racoon was about a foot away from my face, staring at me, with only a flimsy window screen keeping him/her out. (that one's mom, apparently, had been haunting me, walking around in my attic after the thing pried my side vents apart from the outside.

oh yeah, I live about 5 miles from the center of my town... but lots of animals are getting their habitats upset here b/c of building.

[Cleita]

32. Unfortunately, life out in the country

can be starkly harsh. It is how Mother Nature operates at times and she can be a bitch. I watch life and death dramas play out all the time on our property. It becomes very harsly real when I watch the Hawks nail their prey. They are so beautiful soaring in the sky, yet so deadly to the poor critter who will feed their nestlings.

Yet there are the times the trees come into leaf after a barren winter and the fledgling birds leave the nest and mom and dad teach them to fly that are so endearing as well.

[hippywife]

33. Welcome to country life!

Sorry so many odd occurrences all at once. It would seem pretty freaky.

I did have a car horn do that twice in two days. It was during cold weather, can't remember whether it was raining or snowing or windy. Many years ago. Anyway, it was too dark to do anything else but get in the car and start banging on the horn to make it stop. Unfortunately, I lived in a condo complex. It happened again the next morning and I was sitting in the car doing the same thing...banging on it and one of the neighbors on the next court came walking over in her housecoat with a coat thrown over it and her fuzzy slippers, yelling at me to stop honking my horn coz she had kids sleeping. Now really, if you saw someone you didn't know and thought was crazy enough to sit there banging really hard on their car horn early in the morning, would you really be crazy enough to approach them? :crazy: :rofl:

[petronius]

34. That all sounds pretty creepy

I wouldn't shed tears over a starling, however, there's at least a brazillion of them, and they don't belong here anyway.

I had a horn go off like that once - I had a Club on the steering wheel and it slipped and pressed the button. It took a while for me to hear it, and the neighbors were not happy. In your case, however, the horn was probably activated because the Jersey Devil was messing around outside your house...

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Nj_devil_notgreyscale.png