Looking for Lizards

I cringe every time I pick something up off the floor in my bedroom or when I slip on a pair of shoes that's been laying on the floor. Why? Lizards, snakes and rodents find their way into our house on a regular basis. All thanks to my lovely kitties. They tend to end up under my shoe rack hiding under a boot or inside a shoe that didn't get put back. I shake each shoe out before I put it on. My vision is that I'll put my foot in a shoe and a lizard will bite my big toe. I'll scream and fling it across the room. I shiver just thinking about it.

Right now I'm waiting for Boyd to get back from one of his weekend trips to the hardware store. He needs to look through my sock basket. It has a funny smell emanating from it. I got a whiff of dead something. I am not dumping that basket out myself. No way, no how. I'm sure Darryl the boy cat thinks it's a nice gesture to bring me a gopher or mole and put it with my socks so I could thank him later. Sigh....eeewwwwwww.

Good thing my cats are cute and cuddly. Thought it was time to listen to my kitties theme song again:


Ray Wylie Hubbard - Snake Farm
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Ray Wylie Hubbard - Snake Farm

My cats have made my house a "Snake Farm!" Last night 3 snakes, 2 lizards. Today, 1 dead lizard (so far) in the hall.

Snake Farm. Just sounds nasty. Ewwwwwww!!!!!

Up a tree

Early Sunday evening I called the cats in from outside for their dinner. They come running when I click the pop top on the can of cat food because I am the revered opener of cans. Of course, they will only eat the canned food with gravy. They lap up all the gravy first and then eat the chunks of meat. Darryl never finishes his food but his sister cleans up hers and what ever he leaves.

This particular evening girl kitty comes running from outside and comes in to claim her gravy. Her brother however is not appearing. I click the can some more and call him in again. All of a sudden I hear a distress meow and it's distinctively Darryl's meow. My daughter and I look everywhere and couldn't determine where it was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from the neighbors yard but it was echoing off the trees.

A look up revealed him. He was about twenty feet straight up a Monterey Pine tree in the neighbors yard with no way down. He just screamed and screamed because I'm sure that: A.)He knew he was in trouble B.)His sister was eating all the gravy and C.) Daphne the neighbors dog had probably chased him up the tree and he was afraid that if he did try and get down, the dog would eat him.

So I called my fearless husband and told him we had to save the kitty from the tree. He hates heights. But he got a rope from the truck and was prepared to dutifully shimmy twenty feet straight up a tree trunk to save the kitty. Fortunately the neighbor had an extension ladder which was just about tall enough to reach Darryl. The neighbor and I braced the ladder against the tree and held on to it to stabilize it while my husband slowly climbed all the way to the top rung to reach Darryl.

Darryl was so happy to see daddy. But my husband, fearing that the cat was going to claw him to death while they descended down the ladder, had to think quickly of a way to safely get them both down without injury. So he grabbed Darryl by the scruff of his neck and pulled him from his perch in the tree. The cat had a look of terror on his face. All he wanted to do was attach himself to my husbands chest. My husband, being of quick mind and long arms, decided the best thing to do was to use the cats claws and stick him to the trunk of the tree as far down as he could reach while he descended a couple of rungs on the ladder. So in essence, he told the cat to stick like Velcro. The cat being terrified did just that. So down they went a few rungs at a time, each time he lowered the cat a couple of feet on the tree. My husbands running commentary to the cat to stick was so funny, our neighbor and I could barely hold onto the ladder because we were laughing so hard.

Shortly after getting Darryl back in the house, and after he consumed what was left of his gravy, he laid down in the hallway and wouldn't move. I, being the total mom, thought he was still scared and picked him up to comfort him. No, he would have none of that and hopped back down to the same spot in the hall. Then he started batting at the suitcase that was sitting there. I sighed and sent my husband over to move the suitcase. Under the suitcase, placed for safe keeping and a later play date with Darryl was a tailless alligator lizard. The lizard now dwells in the tree.

Score:
Honey-girl kitty-4 dead birds
Darryl-stinky boy kitty-many sticks/4 snakes/1 lizard

The House of Sticks

I thought when my son moved out and went in the Navy that I was done with reptiles and other small creatures living in my house. We had them all; snakes, lizards, frogs, crawdads, fish, rats. I never knew what he was going to catch or bring home. As long as he cared for them and they didn't get out, I was fine with it.

I put my foot down when he caught the garter snake and tried to keep him in a cage in his room. The snake was just angry that he was inside and escaped twice. The second time he popped out of a drawer at me in my son's room. I screamed and slammed the drawer shut. I thought I beheaded it which made be feel really bad. But it turns out he was OK and I made my son take him out to the field and release him. Lesson learned: Don't keep angry snakes in the house.

Our current pets in our semi-empty nest, are Darryl and Honey. They are brother and sister, orange tabby cats and they are not even a year old yet. In previous posts I mentioned that Darryl was fond of catching sticks and had moved up to a "wigglin' stick." The wigglin' stick was a garter snake that he spit out at my husband's foot in the yard. He was very proud, but really didn't like the taste. Since then we have had several incidents with Darryl and his love of sticks.

Our first clue should have been all the sticks he started bringing in the house. We'd come home from work and there would be pieces of sticks everywhere. The great hunter! Then in a corner of the backyard there is a pile of sticks. This must be Darryl's lair where he gathers all of his sticks before distribution.

Darryl has a distinctive meow when he brings in one of his sticks. It's very deep and guttural and says, "Look at what a manly man cat I am. I have caught some more prey. Praise me, oh opener of cans." Of course, up to this point he has been bringing in inanimate sticks. But he is very proud. That all stopped about a week ago. He was by the fireplace and was making his "I've got a stick noise." My husband and I looked over and there it was. He had a live garter snake in the house and was playing with it. A real live wigglin' stick. My husband, being calm and not afraid of snakes like myself, reached down and picked it up. Darryl was not happy that his new play toy had been picked up. I shuddered and my husband tossed the snake in the tree outside our deck.

A few days later our college age daughter had just gotten home from school and was relaxing in the living room when she heard Darryl making a ruckus and meowing. So she got up to look and screamed. He had another snake in the house. She snapped a photo of him on her phone and called me screaming that there was a snake in the house. We determined that a broom and dust pan were the best way to extract the snake since the snake looked mostly dead at this point. So into the tree off the deck it went.

This weekend we found a much bigger and coiled up garter snake in front of the fireplace with my driftwood collection-yes more sticks. Darryl has concluded I collect sticks and he must bring more to me. My husband again calmly picked up the snake and tossed it into the tree outside the deck. All I can do is shudder. He thinks that if I just touch the snake it will help alleviate my fears. That's not the problem. I can touch the snake, I just don't want one touching me when I don't know it's there, like in my bed or shoe!

So I did mention to my husband I was a little unsure of all the snake tossing into the tree. His reasoning was that the cat wouldn't climb that tree and the snakes had a better chance of surviving. I'm just afraid that a passerby on the trail beneath the tree will end up with snakes dropping on them at some point. Or we'll have some biologist out here thinking they have a new rare species of tree dwelling California garter snakes. By the way I did do a little research on the snakes that Darryl is catching and they look like a very common variety. They are not some endangered species.

Life is kept fresh and new with little ones in the house!

Score:
Honey Girl-4 birds
Darryl-many sticks/4 snakes