"Danny D." wrote in message
...
On Mon, 7 Jul 2014 13:38:00 -0400, Robert Green wrote:

Some animal that's rubbing against the tank looking for water. I assume
it's pretty dry where you live.

It's a pretty "big" animal that can make that type of semicircular swirl,
but, we do see it on two different homes' tanks, so, it's caused by
something.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3883/1...d4a0c232_b.jpg

Both homes would have the same deer, mountain lions, cyotes, fox, bobcats,
and, well, nothing else big other than those (e.g., rabbits & quail
galore!).

Who knows what comes looking for water in a drought that bad? Buffalo from
other states, escaped zoo critters, etc. (-: Either it was scent marking
or they were trying to coerce more water out of the tank than the little
leakage we saw in the photo. The next step is to sniff or lick the tank to
determine if there's scent marking accompanying the rub marks. Eeeeww!
(Just kidding - but it does look like some sort of animal marking. Or you
have tiny "squeegee elves" that must have escaped from the Magic Kingdom.

I'd be taking my morning walks with some sort of protection. One of my
earliest memories is of a trip to Canada with the family. We stopped at a
local "petting zoo" where my poor mom was chased around pretty viciously by
a goose who apparently took exception to her straw hat. Or her head. We
were never sure other than watching him try to peck her on top of her head
(and elsewhere). That's when I learned where the term "being goosed" came
from.

As if that weren't enough, a camel hocked the biggest loogie I've ever seen
right on her. Needless to say, at an early age I developed a profound
respect for wildlife and realized my mother had pretty bad luck with
animals.

There's no rain out here to speak of (this news article said we had 4
inches of rain in all of 2013):

http://www.ibtimes.com/current-calif...ir-way-1548912

A while back my friend tried to get me to move to Phoenix but I just
couldn't see moving to a place where if the electricity goes out, Mother
Nature tries very hard to cook you. I remember asking him why are there are
these highway bridges over huge ditches? Then I visited during the very
brief but very respectable rainy season and discovered why.

I hope your drought ends sooner than later. It must be a pretty common
occurrence in your area if they make you maintain huge cisterns. That
sounds like the voice of bitter experience. Just recently I learned that
the water rules are so tough in Colorado, you can't even legally capture the
roof run-off from your own home. Sheesh.

--
Bobby G.