Snakes!

ABOVE: Dell-Roy considers getting off of his chair to go snake hunting. He is the King of Halloween.

So what do you do when its 100 degrees in the shade and you're wearing a fur coat? Kill all the snakes and lizards that somehow got in the house overnight. We've had at least a dozen black snakes and glass lizards in the house in the past 24 hours. Its been . . . interesting. I assume the snakes are trying to escape the extreme heat. . . or they are being brought in with the dogs.



ABOVE: I doesn't take Dell long to find a glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis). . .and. . . well. . .eat it. These reptiles resemble snakes but are actually lizards.



ABOVE: Felix prowls too. . .though I doubt he is able to really stalk and kill anything anymore. He is very ill.




ABOVE: Ramone and the DRR Tabby (Damien) have full bellies. They appear to not care. . . but they pounce as soon as they see something move. Ramone killed the last bird that got in the house.



ABOVE: DuPree, the only girl, is above all the nonsense. . . sitting, as she always does, with her tree. A bonsai one of the neighbors gave us a couple years ago.



ABOVE: Moyte and Claxton fought over this snake. Moyte got this one. . . and as you can see. . . he ate it.



ABOVE: Dell couldn't figure out why this one kept moving, long after he had eaten half of it. Its an evolutionary marvel. . .the glass lizard drops the tail (a serious loss of body mass) to preserve his core. The tail remains mobile to distract the predator, while the lizard can flee. It will take considerable effort for the lizard to replace his tail, especially so late in the year. . .and the new one will be considerably smaller in size than the original. . . and. . .well. . .the lizard didn't evolve with domestic cats. . .so. . . for all the marvel of the moving tail. . . this one died in Dell's belly.



ABOVE: The temps approach 100 F. at noon today, in the shade. It stayed near 100 F. until dusk, when the temps started to drop into the low 90s. . . and now low 80s at midnight. Last forecast shows this heat wave continuing well into next week.