My wife and I live only 35 miles east of San Francisco, but sometimes I feel as if when we moved here four years ago, we moved to Wild Kingdom. The photo above is one my wife took in our backyard in June 2021. Deer are very prevalent around these parts and we see them all the time.

It’s not unusual to see coyotes in yards and on the streets. We need to keep our eyes out for them when we’re walking with our dog, but so far, the coyotes we’ve run across seem pretty skittish.

Of course, there are those pesky scavengers, raccoons, that seem to be looking for scraps around, and sometimes in, our trash bins.

I have no personal experiences with bobcats or mountain lions, but a few of my neighbors swear they’ve seen them wandering through their yards.

And making appearances from beneath the surface of the earth are gophers and moles. The moles I don’t mind so much. Yes, they drill holes in the surface, but dine primarily on grubs and other bug thingies in the ground. But gophers feast on the roots of shrubs and plants, killing them.

And finally, at the other end of the “wild” spectrum who inhabit our yard: