You probably have wild pets too.

I had to say goodbye to my scorpion pet . . she is wild and I left the campsite where she lives but while I was there I got to know her pretty well. Well enough that I gave her a name. She lives in a rock wall in a cool crevice that she hides in in the daytime, hence I called her Heidi. At night, while warm breezes floated onshore from the Sea of Cortez, I would visit her with my ultra violet light and check on her. She would be out of the hole part way, waiting for an insect to come close for a meal. I never got to see her catch something but one night she was all the way out of her rock apartment and laying on top of another scorpion. They were motionless the whole time I was there, but I hope that is how scorpions make babies.

When I think of all the wild pets I have, it makes me wonder if you have some too. At home there is a Towhee that I see daily as he checks the ground on the side of my house of tasty morsels. The Robin across the street is very territorial about his worm hunting grounds and he is fun to watch as he hops the border giving his possession calls. The racoons in our neighborhood have names and personalities as well. Perhaps you even have named a spider who sets up housekeeping on the outside of your window. Soon I will be out tracking one of my favorite black bears, one I have never seen but who leaves me email messages on a fence post in the way of scratch marks, teeth marks and black kinky hair scrubbed off his back as he leaves lots of scent for me. I return the favor every year leaving my scent there as well.

Wild pets don't require anything from you but observation. I love to get to know an animal well by watching its wild life uninterrupted.