Reptiles...

Our home here in San Antonio is a magnet for reptiles. I have had more encounters with reptiles in the 4 months we have lived here than I have had in the last 15 years.

My first encounter was opening the garage and seeing a baby lizard run/waddle across the garage floor. No big deal right? Within a few days I found a nest in the corner of our garage--a lizard's nest without a doubt. There were 5 white eggs the size of jelly beans. I decided there was no harm in letting them carry out their mating rituals in my garage.

The next encounter happened in the morning. I opened up the front door a few inches to check on something outside. I closed the door. I looked down and was startled to see a snake hanging out on the tile right in front of the door in my house, just inches from my bare feet. INSIDE my house. Snakes are okay, but not in my house. So, I calmly grabbed my babies dirty sock off the floor and tried to grab the tail of the snake with the sock, using the sock as a barrier between my fingers and the snake. The snake did not like being man-handled. I tried multiple times to throw it out the door onto the porch and each time was unsuccessful. The snake would start thrashing around every time I got the tail and it managed to elude me. It started flopping towards me and that is when my girlish screams echoed through the house. Somehow I finally managed to thrust it out the door.

Back to lizards. At night when I come and go after dark our porch light has revealed as many as 5 or 6 lizards basking in our porch light on the brick wall of our home. On several occasions the vibration from shutting the door as I go out causes one or more of the lizards to drop off their perch and land in front of me. Always startling.

Last but not least, one or more of my lizard friends has come to visit me in my home and cruises along my wall. Sheldon caught one and put it out. I saw another one but my attempts to catch it proved futile when it scurried into a gap in the stairs.

Actually, I have more. I weed eat our yard weekly and I have managed to nail frogs on several occasions. It is never fun to have frog legs flying in all directions. Just for the record, I am not cruel--quite the contrary. They hide themselves so well in the grass that I have done the damage before I even know what happened. I injured one that I forced Sheldon to come out and retrieve. Instead of killing it (I didn't have the heart), he gently lowered it down over the fence into our neighbors yard and decided he would let them deal with it.

This evening I stepped out to put something in Sheldon's car. As it was well after dark, I carefully and slowly opened the front door to avoid raining lizards or snakes down on my head. I then cautiously looked down to step and there, before my eyes, was a frog chilling on my mat. I could easily have stomped it with my bare feet had I not been on my guard. Talk about a serious noise pollution issue at 2 in the morning when my screams echo through the neighborhood.

Reptiles, I must thank you. You have kept my life interesting and you've kept me on my toes. Thank you and good night! (Not to mention GOOD RIDDANCE!)