Not Animals
Moving down the food chain, we have many little green anoles, checkered geckos, and tiny brown, nearly legless lizards. We love them all. We also have all kinds of butterflies. Once we found the loquat smothered in migrating monarchs.
We have tarantulas. Huge, dusty-colored, soft, and furry, they are mild mannered creatures, the only spiders I really like. We have bats, too. If you sit out on the deck at night in summer, they flutter by like shadows.
The biggest bug ever was a four-inch centipede. I like to think that we maintain a pretty benevolent attitude toward our resident wildlife, but I smashed that thing with a brick the minute I saw it.
Once we had five palettes of brick delivered in the height of a hot, dry summer. Sure enough, I found a scorpion in them. I knew it. I was on the lookout for it. I smashed him, too. A little black scorpion lived down by the avenue, but that's pretty far from the house, so I left him alone.
You know what else I kill on sight? Diving beetles. I hate them! They get in the pool, and they bite! This is starting to give me the creeps. Cockroaches, fire ants, mosquitoes, we've crossed a line here. I am not going to write about the bugs. I have my limits.
Here is the list of the animals we live with:
anole
armadillo
bat
butterfly
coyote
deer
fox
frog
gecko
lizard
possum
rabbit
raccoon
ringtail cat
skunk
snakes: rough green, blotched, checkered garter, Texas garter, yellow-bellied, coral, indigo and rat snakes
squirrel
tarantula
toad