Ace Ventura lives at my house

My husband has an uncanny ability to find what I consider unwanted critters. I realize that I live in the hills and am therefore, closer to God's creatures. That doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't mind the cows, deer or wild turkeys that frequent my neighborhood. I can even live with the skunks if they stay upwind. It's the creepier creatures that bother me. Thank goodness it's rarely me who comes across them.

We have a gopher snake named Snake. Snake was in my backyard near our BBQ when my husband saw him. Todd grew up with snakes so you can imagine his joy. We feed the snake, house the snake in a glass aquarium and pay electricity for Snake so he can be snuggly warm. (rolling eyes)

Many years ago my husband came across a tarantula in our backyard. It was a big one too. He put it in a nice show and tell container (one of my favorite Tupperware!) and Paula brought him to preschool the next day for their science table. We have an abundance of Black Widows in my backyard too.

We have raccoons that come frequent our backyard at night scavenging for food. Last night, Todd turned on our BBQ to cook chicken and out flew a scorched rat! That's a first and I hope a last.

Here are a just few pictures I have so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

A moth Todd got to land on his shorts.

Snake

Our industrial strength bug zapper. It goes off non-stop.

the cows on our hills across the street from my house

Turkeys behind our house on the hill in February 2009

THE tarantula in our backyard

This snake Todd did not bring home and was further down our hill.



Two ducks who want inside my house for some reason

Is it a lizard?

I'm watching my neighbors house for a few days. They have 2 cats I'm in charge of right now. One cat, Stewart, is notorious for bringing home presents. The last time I watched their house he brought in a bird. It was dead by the time I saw it, but it lay in their inside entry way with feathers everywhere. Nice.

Last night I'm sitting on their couch watching something I Tivo'd (knowing I'd be there an hour to visit w/the cats). I see something moving along the wall over by the entry way. It was almost slithering. I'm thinking Snake? I see Stewart over there too so I go to investigate. It's a lizard. It wasn't a green lizard, it was more yellow in color and almost transparent which creeped me out. I'm used to green lizards. It was trying to make it's way behind the shelves so I grab it. Ick! It didn't look well. I noticed a puncture wound on it's right middle side with blood coming out. The cat is freaking out now. He wants me to drop his toy. I opened up the front door and tossed the lizard into the bushes and quickly shut the door so Stewart couldn't retrieve it. Stewart is meowing like crazy. After I washed my hands I called the girls because that's what I do when their pets leaves me presents. I got Dina's cell phone voice message system. They owe me.

Edited to add a photo I found online. He kind of looked like this gecko so as my commenter said, I think it was a gecko.