Trying to be creative in sunny Florida: My Florida home and its inhabitants: the critters

Life in Florida is different.

I live a very outdoor oriented lifestyle and I enjoy the blurring of the lines between outside and inside; whenever the scorching heat abates slightly, I throw open my doors and wander in and out. Of course, lots of other things wander in and out, too.

Thank goodness I have friends who are incredibly smart and attuned to life in Florida. The only way I wind up doing a lot of the things I do is by riding their brilliant, adventurous coattails. I also call on them whenever I need to ID a critter. Case in point, the spadefoot toad (above) that wandered in from my patio during a heavy rain. They mostly stay under ground but elevated water levels can bring them out into the open on occasion.

Jane assures me that the golden silk orb weaver is a very gentle spider and I have grown to admire them and their alien beauty, however, I'm not sure I would hold one unless Jane were there to calm me AND the spider.

There are lizards everywhere and my understanding is that the brown anoles I see are an introduced species which has displaced most of the native green anoles. Years ago, on a trip to New Zealand, I witnessed intense discussion regarding introduced species and what to do about them. The driver of a car hit a small bird, pulled over to ID its tattered remains, coolly pronounced, "Introduced," and tossed it to the side of the road. While I won't actively encourage more brown anoles, I think I'll just let them be. P.S. They are fun to watch.

I love a gecko. When I disturb a clutch of their eggs, working in my yard, I bring them in to hatch. See the little eggshell on the counter in the photo? Geckos live in my house, only coming out to hunt in the dark but I always release the ones I hatch in a more natural environment outside.

There are lots of sleek, shiny skinks in my yard but they move so fast I have yet to capture one on film.

I've only found one glass lizard but what a cool looking creature! I uncovered it while shifting some mulch. It has no legs so it resembles a snake.

This is definitely a snake, no mistake! I always have Florida black racers in my yard and I welcome their presence as they munch on mice and rats that snack on my chicken feed. The biggest ones in my yard are a few feet long and while they are not poisonous, they can bite, so I give them a wide berth.

Baby black racers look very different from the adults and when I initially posted this pic on FaceBook, there was a lot of consternation that I had picked up a baby rattle snake. Truth be told, this baby did bite me, leaving 2 teeny tiny specks of blood on my finger. Lesson learned!

Lots of toads and frogs. Every time I turn over a board or rock in my yard, I've disturbed a little toad's resting place and the frogs are hiding in all the nooks and crannies around my plants. One time, before I could stop her, my older dachshund grabbed a toad in her mouth. Maybe it did that peeing trick or it was covered in a nasty secretion because Schotzie dropped it immediately and began foaming at the mouth, running all over the house, rubbing her face against the furniture. No lasting illness from it but she avoids toads now.