Critters

I can't think of a more appropriate title.  It's not that there isn't a more appropriate title - it's just that it's been a long day and my head hurts - so this one will have to do.

On the recent to-do list I mentioned our plans to build a rabbit hutch... more of a rabbit condo... for our bunny, Leo.  At the moment he's mostly living in his little store-purchased wood hutch.  Poor Leo.  He's a big bunny and the hutch just gets smaller and smaller.  Literally.  Leo is a rodent.  He chews wood.  Who decided to make an all-wood bunny hutch anyway? Ugh.

So this afternoon I received some of the cage parts necessary for the construction of Leo's condo.  (Far be it for the local Lowe's to actually carry anything we might need.... Thank you, Internet.)  We haven't started yet but I have a strong suspicion that the bunny condo project will commence this weekend.

Today's near-constant rainfall is all there is to report otherwise.  The sludge that is our yard reminds me that this area is a swamp.... And lots of swampy critters have been coming out of hiding (lest they drown) for the past couple of days - turtles and salamanders and snakes and this guy:

He was hanging out under a cushion that I'd forgotten to get out of the rain.  I run into plenty of these fellas when I'm rooting around in the garden... And I just have to wonder - is this normal?  Seriously.  When you turn over rocks in your garden you find.. snails.. spiders... worms... doodlebugs...  turtles.. skinks... What about these?

I've lived here on the Gulf Coast my entire life - and some things I naturally take for granted.  The sound of seagulls before a storm... Pelicans on the front porch...  Sassafras leaves...  Catalpa worms... But as I get older - and with the influence of my non-native husband - I have begun thinking about what little day-to-day experiences are local, which are regional, and which are universal.