Bats are big, shrews are small, but geckos are the cutest of all!

The geckos really are cute here. No, they look nothing like the GEICO gecko. Last night there was a little excitement in the house with one of these guys. I was taking Jenna upstairs and saw a little baby gecko no longer than 2 inches even with his tail...on second floor. Hmm. I wonder how long he had been in here. Lonnie had a hard time chasing him down.

Just last week one hitched a ride on the leg of Lonnie's uniform. It fell on the floor so Lonnie trapped its tail under his shoe. Well...his tail CAME OFF! He got the little guy outside but, not to be outdone...he ran back in. When Lonnie finally got him back out he noticed that part of his insides were on his outside (just trying to be tactful). So...Lonnie did what he always does to creatures in distress or facing imminent death. He stomped on it. Yep. He did that when we were walking on the campus of Northwestern in Evanston. There was a pigeon laying on the sidewalk obviously dying. He looked around for something to kill it with but there wasn't anything. He told me he had to kill it because he couldn't stand to see it suffer. I walked several yards ahead. I didn't want to see that! Well, hearing the sound of tennis shoe to feathered animal isn't a sound you ever want to hear again. Yep. One day I'm going to sick and he's just going to stomp on me.

As for the banana spider I've told some of you about...here's an excellent picture to describe its size.

Get ready...

It's a pretty safe bet to say that when I do see one of these...I'm going to lose it! Moving on...

Centipedes? REALLY not into those either...

Yeah...up to 6 inches long. The chair leg is a pretty good point of reference. We haven't seen one yet. Not just creepy but...POISONOUS too. Nice.

Shrews. Cute. Probably destructive. I can live with those though as long as they stay outside. They love to run all over the front yard at night when it's dark. When we pull in the driveway the headlights tell the story.

And last, but certainly NOT least...the dreadful Habu. It's a pit viper. Viper. Viper = venomous. Should you happen to come crashing through the ER doors in a panic from a snake having bitten you they will ask you this one question..."were you bitten on land or in the sea?" That'll determine the anti-venin you receive. Apparently, there is at least one venomous sea snake here. And, the jellyfish are pretty impressive too.

Still wanna come visit?