No lions or tigers, but we did have a bear - unfortunately, shot dead in a tree overhanging the train tracks and the turnpike in Newton.

In Waltham, first responders rescued a raccoon that had somehow gotten stuck in a storm-sewer grate.

In Brookline, a beseiged citizenry sought refuge from terrible turkeys that, when not attacking people or making town officials crash their trucks, were busy breaking into houses. Brookline Police felt compelled to issue tips on how to avoid death by pecking. How bad was it? In the first six months of the year, Brookine Police reported officers fired their weapons exactly twice - once in Watertown during the hunt for the living Tsarnaev brother and once to help dispatch one of the town's toughest toms.

Kamikaze turkeys attacked speeding Amtrak trains not once but twice in Mansfield, and took out a car on 128.

But in Cambridge, turkeys chilled with the locals in both Central Square and Harvard Square.

Across the river, Mumbles the Turkey took the grand tour of downtown Boston.

In Roxbury, Zelenyoko learned possums don't always play possum when cornered:

An early riser in Roslindale spotted a deer kicking it:

A deer also turned up in East Boston. And in Newton, grandson got run over by a reindeer.

In Jamaica Plain, something with paws ate local chickens. Next door, in Roslindale, something decapitated pigeons in the park.

A bandit snuck into the Downtown Crossing T stop but got hung up going down the up escalator:

In Uphams Corner, bees swarmed a bright yellow car:

An eel swam up the Charles. A skunk slunk around a Roxbury yard. A bunny hopped along the Commonwealth Avenue mall. A white squirrel gamboled in the West End. A whale swam into Boston Harbor. A fisher cat yowled into Cambridge.

In Readville, motorists know to brake for goose:

A newsman's simple request turned into a full-bore debate on how to pronounced "plover."

A woman rescued a turtle before it could get hurtle on Comm. Ave. by Charlesgate.

Firefighters rescued an injured osprey on Boylston Street in the Fenway. A hawk watched a ballfield on the Common like, well, you know.

Several shark sightings along our coasts this summer were more likely sightings of sunfish - large, placid jellyfish eaters that happen to have fins that sometimes stick out of the water:

Amfretto had the presence of mind to reach for a camera, rather than run screaming, when she spotted this hawk sitting on her balcony in Medford: