Wild Stories of Wildlife

I don’t have many yet, but I’m sure there’s more to come

My resident gecko, picking up his nightly carry-out

We start with something simple — the gecko on the screen. All of the windows are open all of the time here. I don’t have air conditioning. I live in a block house with walls of windows that are always open and the breeze always blows through. Unless, of course, it’s pouring rain; in that case, I’m managing with fans and praying the electricity stays on so I have some air motion. If the fans go off, the humidity inside rises with the temperature and… UGH!

I haven’t had to deal with that — yet. I do not look forward to it. Anyway, having the windows open at all times can lead to some interesting encounters. Like the gecko on the screen, every night, taking advantage of the light attracting dinner. He’s there like clockwork. The sun goes down around 6:30 and he’s there before 6:45. I always see him with something in his mouth. He seems to be a happy, healthy guy. It’s hard to take his photo, though; he takes off with his dinner every time I try.

Attack crab on a recon mission

Next, we have the “attack crab”. I’m not sure what it was up to; a recon mission, perhaps? I noticed it moving out of the corner of my eye. It would move a bit, then freeze, move a bit more and freeze. It was edging closer to my foot, its eyes on my bare toes. Not that it could have done any damage; it was the size of a quarter. It was so small that I was afraid to pick it because I might injure it. I used a plastic container and lid to catch it. Once inside the container, it waved its claws threateningly, as though it could do something. Clearly, it’s like my six pound canine; it believes itself to be much larger than it actually is. I let it go on the front porch. My daughter questioned why I didn’t return it to the beach. Hey, it found the house on its own; it can find its way back to the beach without me.

Sorry it’s so blurry. It was hard to catch it ten feet away.

This is my “pet” gecko. At least, I think it’s a gecko; it may be an anole, but it’s so tiny that I have a hard time identifying it even close up. It’s maybe an inch and a half long — and I’m being generous. When I first spotted it, it was moving in a way that resembled a silverfish. I was inclined to squish it until I got close enough to identify that it was actually a reptile. I caught it, then let it outside. It was back inside the next day, this time on the staircase wall. Two nights ago, I found it in the closet. It comes and goes as it pleases, coming in under the door, just as the crab had done. It’s been named “Frank” by my youngest daughter, she who names all of the animals. It wasn’t until later that she remembered my late father’s name was Frank (He died when I was six). She started to feel bad about it, but I told her the name is appropriate because it won’t leave. It’s almost like it’s watching over me. At the very least, it’s watching me. There’s something comforting in naming it after my father.

Nightlife

Next up is the snake. Again, not the best picture, but I was taking a picture at night while holding the leashes of two very energetic dogs. The snake practically played dead so I could get a picture of it. According to Google, it’s a rhombic cat eye snake. It eats frogs and is harmless to people and pets (unless you have a pet frog). It was nearly two feet long, so it was an adult; they don’t get bigger than that. I was more concerned for the snake, even before I identified that it was harmless. My dogs wanted to go out at 11:30 at night. The snake wasn’t there when we went out, but there it was when we came back. I could have stepped on it or the dogs could have seen it and attacked to “protect” me. After I took the photo, we went into the house and left it to hunt. I haven’t seen it since.

I failed to get photos of the other two encounters. The first was a cane toad. Toads aren’t known for being particularly attractive, but cane toads are especially ugly. And big, very big; the one in my yard is larger than a softball. Fortunately, my dogs weren’t around to get curious about it, although one of my dogs wanted to chase a baby cane toad through the grass yesterday. I have my dogs on leashes for very valid reasons, cane toads being one of those. I have been known to threaten my dogs’ lives on occasion, but I would never actually do anything to hurt them, so cane toads aren’t on their menu.

The final encounter was (once again) in the house, with a very uninvited guest. My dogs have folded blankets on the floor because the tile is too hard, but regular dog beds are too hot. I regularly shake out the sand and sweep under the blankets, then refold them so they’re comfortable. I was nearly falling asleep one night after a long day, so I was preparing to go to bed. One of my last acts is to make sure the blankets are neatly folded. I picked up the first one, shook out the sand, and folded it neatly. I picked up the second one — and found a scorpion under it. The scorpion was between three and four inches long (I hear that’s big for this area), dark brown and deep red. It was laying flat and not moving; maybe it was hoping I wouldn’t see it. Riiight. I was WIDE awake at this point. My dogs started to get closer for a better look, but I screamed “NO!” so sharply that nothing moved. I think I stopped time for a few seconds. I’ve never encountered a scorpion before, not even in Tucson for the two years I lived there, even though I was out in the desert at night. Go figure. Anyway, I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed a flip flop and smacked it. I’ve since learned that I probably only stunned it and it probably would have recovered. (Fun fact: I’ve also learned that Panama has the most scorpions of any Central American country). I guess they’re hard to kill. I picked up up by the tail using tweezers and flushed it. I don’t think it’ll recover from that. It took nearly three hours for the adrenaline to clear my system and now, I’m paranoid about finding a scorpion. I sweep the house multiple times a day. Nope! Sorry I failed to get a photo; maybe next time, although I pray there is never a “next time”. Hell to the no.

There you have it, my “close” encounters of the animal kind. I’m sure there will be many more adventures to come, just hopefully not with anything that can kill me. I came here for the peace and to get some rest, but that would be carrying things a bit too far. Thanks for reading!