We’re finding our little military base to be inhabited by several critters, some of which are familiar, such as rabbits and cats, and others which are not so familiar, such as parrots, magpies, geckos and TREE RATS.
The magpies and parrots fly around our housing area and they’re plentiful, as are the rabbits, but even more plentiful are the wild cats around here. And yes, I mean wild cats, not wildcats, which is a blessing, I suppose. These cats roam around everywhere! What’s up with that? Where are these kitties coming from anyway? The first day of our intercultural seminar found us scrambling to get there on time, and my husband was making the comment that it wouldn’t be cool to walk in late, and no sooner had the words left his lips, a black cat ran right in front of our rental car. How nice! We wondered if we’d possibly find a ladder to walk under next.
We kept noticing these wide silver, aluminum-like bands around the palm trees here, and finally we inquired about the reason for these, and were told they are to protect them from the rats that evidently are attracted to the nuts in the top of the trees. Now… I have yet to lay eyes on one of these rats, and between you and me, I can skip that part of my Spain experience and be totally okay about it. Tree rats DO NOT appeal to me, not in the remotest sense.
We’re finding lots of roly-poly bugs in our house, which doesn’t exactly thrill me, but they seem pretty harmless, so I suppose we can co-exist. I just hope I don’t step on one while on my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Ewwwww! Of course I’d rather step on one of those than one of the scorpions I’m told we might see here. A friend recently told us that his wife found one in a shoe in her closet. Oh yeah, that makes me feel right at home!
Over the weekend my husband spied a huge praying mantis on a tree in the front yard and I went outside to take a look. I was unable to see the big bug as my eyes were instead fixated on the SNAKE slithering down the palm tree. No one told me there were snakes here! It wasn’t a big snake and I’ve since been told there are no poisonous snakes in the area. I suppose that should comfort me, and I guess it does… somewhat. It’s just that I’m not a fan of snakes OF ANY KIND, and while I realize they’re God’s creatures and have a purpose in the food chain and all that, I’m not altogether happy with the knowledge that there’s one in my yard.
I’m thinking we could start our own Wild Animal Kingdom right here in our yard! The boys are finding the variety of critters to be fascinating. In particular, they are mesmerized, and quite literally OBSESSED with the geckos we find on our patios here. They come out at different times, but seem to be present more in the evenings. The boys are partial to the babies and even I have to admit they’re pretty cute. Every night before our oldest goes to bed, he insists on going outside to hunt for geckos. He’s practically begging to capture one and keep it as a pet. I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen, but my son remains hopeful.
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