Turtles and Rajahs and snakes, oh my!

Yes, one of those is not exactly Florida wildlife, but I needed a third to make it all flow, so whatever.

First up: Meet the Florida softshell turtle!

This fine specimen of Apalone ferox was stranded crossing the main road in our neighborhood. We pulled over, I yanked on some latex gloves and we attempted to rescue him.

I’ve rescued a few box turtles in the neighborhood but this dude was in a different family. When I tried to pick him up (with my hands grabbing the shell towards the back – I know enough to avoid the bitey parts in front), it was soft and flexible and he SKITTERED away. I think at one point he practically ran over Mike’s foot. The damn thing scuttled under my car and out. Happily, I’ve had a bag for Goodwill rattling about in my car for a while … which included an iron skillet. Using that – which absorbed a few bites in the process – we chivvied him back up over the curb into the pond.

Next up: an exemplar of the rare species Panthera tigris raveneous:

Have I posted that one before? I’m not sure. After a while all his adorably fuzzy sleepy pix begin to look the same!

Which leads us to something that is not at all adorable or fuzzy:

I was away at a doctor’s appointment the morning that this little dude showed up. I can’t say I’m very sorry about that, although I feel bad for Mike. He doesn’t like snakes.

I do generally like snakes – I think they’re cool and pretty and useful – but NOT INSIDE MY HOUSE!!!!!!

We cannot for the life of us figure out how the HELL it got into our bathroom. It was on the floor in front of Mike’s sink, where he’d stood not ten minutes before shaving. I’m completely baffled.

Oh, and our dummy cat was completely worthless and didn’t notice AT ALL that there was a reptilian intruder. Nice going there, Mr. Rajah.

Have a happy, and snakeless, Friday!