It used to be the giraffe. There is the unusual anatomy: the elongated neck, devilish ossicones and that cheery, glaikit look on their mush. Giraffes are good but they have been dethroned from the top of my favourite animal list. The new kid on the block is this guy.
A giant Anteater.
What a jolly good fellow he is. I was watching something on Animal Planet, can’t remember what it was called- Wildlife at Large, Zoo Hospital, Discovering Creatures, they’re all the same, aren’t they? Any Which Way But Loose the big guy just waltzed onto the screen and that was me sinkered, hook and line for sure.
Possessing a soft shoe shuffle walk and coat of Johnny Cash black, I marvelled at the mighty world of the Myrmecophaga tridactyla. The vacuum cleaning accessory that is the tube on his kisser used for devouring ants makes a wonderful locomotive noise when scoffing its prey.
MMchuchuhu MMchuchuhu MMchuchuhu MMchuchuhu.
Magnificent mammals, there will be no one in the room that dislikes them. Apart from, maybe, ants.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Great stuff! I was rather taken aback when a very similar shaped but much smaller creature stomped across the lawn in Dallas. It was an armadillo looking for lunch. Splendid little fellow. He was quite a regular.
I always rather like raccoons too with their bandit faces until a family took up residence in our chimney in Memphis. We had to leave them a while because they had babies, who wants dead smoked babies in their chimney? When ambulant we had a cap fitted!
I suppose novelties that you discover in new places always have a bit of a pull.
Mind you, I’ll pass on the bears up here!
Quite fond of the red squirrels here. The youngsters play hide and seek in the apple trees and their elders collect walnuts and hazelnuts all Autumn long, hide them in the grass and forget where they are in no time.
Same here j, my raised beds are beset by walnuts sprouting planted by black squirrels that forget where they left their dinners! Half a dozen doors down has the hugest walnut tree ever. With permanent residents of squirrels and bald headed eagles zooming about. They always pinch the tallest trees for des res.
Thanks CO and J for your interesting tails. However, I’m disappointed that, in keeping with the spirit of the post, neither of you described the sounds of an armadillo or red squirrel.
RRRYYIIEEEE goes the angry coyote.
Don’t start the dogs on the subject of coyotes. The place we moved from last time was right hard up against a forested mountain. It had its statutory pack of coyotes. The terriers were terrified of them. They used to always start a howl up at night and the dogs, doing their duties as hot water bottles in bed would flatten their ears, tightly close their eyes and glue themselves to the coverlet. Positively screaming silently-
We hear no enemies, they are not there, they are not here, WE are good dogs, WE are doing our duty as bed warmers.
WE do nuzzing! WE SLEEP.
Always reminded me of the eyeglass to the eye patch, ‘We see no ships’ syndrome. Amusing, they are not bothered here, can’t hear them, too far away, the bears, deer and coyote stay on the mountain pretty well and don’t venture out onto the plain too much.
Must not forget our resident skunk either who took up residence 5′ from the front door under a large azalea bush. The dogs only bothered him once as you can imagine! We rather liked him there, anyone who was wanted came to the back door anyway and he was very good at repelling the plagues of Seventh Day Adventists, Morons and assorted religious nutters who would call. (But only once with that stench!)
PS God knows what an armadillo sounds like, he was always a most silent calller, always tracked across the front lawn on exactly the same path, stomped across slowly and deliberately, no doubt looking for grubs etc on the way as he toured the neighbourhood.
Thomas the Toad deserves an honourable mention. He lazed under a bay-bush for the whole summer but then left, maybe bushwacked by a hawky thingy on his way backe to the lake.