Its a Hairy Situation!..or..A Cure For Baldness?

  Since Son was busy doing some home repair projects, I decided to do a bit of "stick gathering".  Stick gathering, for those who do not know, is the fine art of picking up twigs for fire starters in the old cast iron woodstoves.  It only takes a handful to bring a blazing fire to life and warm the house.  I knew it was going to be quite chilly again tonight, so the stick gathering was of high importance.  It is one of those chores that I actually like doing as it gets me outdoors.  I happily took my basket out to the north side of the house and started breaking small limbs into smaller pieces.  I had filled the basket about half way when I noticed what appeared to be a dead critter of some sort.  A quite large tuft of black hair was half hidden beneath an azalea bush.  Ok, I have two black cats. One, who is pushing twenty years of age.  While she is quite savvy about being outdoors, her age might prove to be her undoing if she encounters a larger critter.  The other cat, while younger and MUCH larger, is not as bright when it comes to defending herself.  Both points caused me a bit of worry.  I had to investigate this hairy situation even though the outcome might not be to my liking.

  I pulled aside the lower limbs of the bush and peered into the dim abyss.  Ok...that sure did look a lot like the younger cat's fur or at least a good size wad of it.  Each hair was about four to five inches long...just like hers.  (The older cat, Ms. Put, is a short-haired feline.)  My heart sank a bit.  The younger cat, Ms. Nycto, has become "my" cat.  She has sort of attached herself to me.  Losing her would be saddening, to say the least.

  I gingerly reached down and touched the fur.  Hmmm..there was no warmth.  My poor Nycto....my brain was reeling about that time.  I gave a bit of a tug on the "hair".  Nope, it was firmly "planted" on something. Ok...I needed to just be brave and take a gander at that black fur ball. Just as I was getting down on  my knees to investigate further, Son came up behind me.  "What's up?"  I pointed at the black blob...."Is that Nycto?", I asked.   I am proud to say that Son handled it from there.  He started poking at the hair, tugging at it and even dug around it.  "Nope." he said...."Not her."

  At that point, we could not decide just what that the "fur" was.  It was hard to say for sure that it was not at one time attached to an animal or if this was some sort of weird plant.  Part of it was buried beneath the soil like roots but could have been where a critter had been buried.  As far as we could see, there were no bones....just the black fur.  What was this thing??

  I took some photographs (naturally!) and decided to research this since it was neither of my cats (thank goodness!).  After about an hour, I think I stumbled upon the answer.  It is a mold!  Phycomyces Nitens to be exact.  The mold seems fond of growing on critter droppings.  Well, that seemed logical since a rabbit has been seen under this azalea almost daily.

  Another question popped into my brain as soon as I discovered that this was a mold...could it be bad for our health?  After all, Son and I were both touching this mess of furry fungi.  I read a bit more and have decided that if we did not breathe it or eat it, we should be fine.  Well, that settles that!  Like I said earlier....I am just so thankful that both of my cats are fine!  Fur or not...you have to admit that this is one weird find!

**After I wrote this, I told Son about my findings.  My "man of few words" said "We could make growing-wigs."  Aha! There we go!  We are geniuses!  Make a lotion out of critter poop, add a few spores and we have just invented "Grow Your Own Toupee"...a long awaited cure for baldness!  Yep, you just never know what weird and wonderful things are found on the Bayou...or in this case...on rabbit poop.