They're in the mood for lurve ...

We're having a bumper crop of reptiles this year.

Because of their size I suspect the gopher tortoises are only searching for new homes after their habitat was "disturbed" when a few months ago, all the tall pine was taken off the tree farm in back.

Frogs is frogs, except for the little ones with suction-thingies on their toes. We've always had a few of the latter here and there by the hoses and faucets, but even with as dry as it is because of the little rain we've had so far this year, they're all over the place.

I haven't seen that many snakes, not that I want to see any, but the Black Racers I have seen have been big. Long? The longest one was over three feet, an eyeball measurement only made when a neighbor — who comes running whenever he hears me scream I call — captured it and held it up for me to see. ("Jay," an amateur herpetologist, either added it to his collection of "pets" OR he took it out into what's left of the woods in back and turned it loose. I don't care so long as he gets them out of here.)

Lizards are everywhere. The skinks hanging ‘round the feed and hay shed are so numerous I hardly notice them anymore as they scurry around. (Hardly.) Chameleons don't bother me and haven't for years, ever since that time long ago when one of the dogs decided to eat one.

Being the nice person I am, I opened the dog's mouth, crammed my hand down its throat grabbing the Chameleon by its tail and dragged it out, thereby saving its life.

The Chameleon thanked me by taking off leaving its flip-flapping tail still between my fingers. ("Jay" heard me and came running thinking I'd spotted another snake.) After that I began ignoring my dogs' strange dietary habits.

I've spotted a different kind of lizard around this year, not that I study them you understand, but these were kind of hard to miss.

About a week ago I was just starting to go up the back steps when the activity drew my attention. Looking more closely I was immediately transported back to those old, filmed in black and white, horror movies I knew as a kid. You, too, might recognize them.

The hero and heroine (and the disposable extras) are in a world filled with dinosaurs. As the terrified heroine screams (and keeps screaming) two dinosaurs, the rills on their backs erect, are locked in mortal combat.

Mouths clamped shut on the others leg or throat, over and over they roll, each one refusing to let go! It's a battle to the death!

Sure was.

I'm certain thanks to the lizard's ability to regenerate missing parts the one lizard would have grown a new tail. I'm not sure about the leg on the other but . . . well, Starbuck showed up and before they knew it (<GULP>) they were both gone.

I wanted to blog about these lizards, their battle and scenes in dinosaur movies of old, but needed a picture to go with it. I finally got my chance to get one yesterday when once again I spotted two lizards rolling around.

I grabbed my camera and began shooting blindly, getting closer and closer with each and every step, hoping for a clear shot when suddenly, the lizards took off in opposite directions.

It wasn't until I'd loaded the pics onto The Beast and zoomed in on my last shot that I realized . . .

Jeez, I'm sorry. I really didn't intend to interrupt.