An Experience In Humanity: Creature Contact

I am not a wild-(or domestic animal)-life photographer.

But, every once in a while creatures like to cross my - and my camera's - path.

Here are a few I've recently come into contact with....

This is Jasmine

(aka Jazzy)

She's a Savannah - a cross breed between a wild African serval and a domestic cat.

She has beautiful markings, is amazingly long and lean, and likes to spring several feet in the air to catch butterflies and birds. She is also very affectionate and loves to lounge in my lap when I visit.

There are two horses that live in the field behind my mother's house.

I tried bribing them with carrots and apples, but they just stared uninterestedly and went back to rooting grasses from the snow.

This calf lives in the field on the other side of my mother's property.

He came to the fence, 'moo'ed, and stared at me every morning when I left the house.

This is Steve

(yes, I've named him)

He is a Mexican Milk Snake and we met one quiet and humid morning in my father's backyard in Montgomery, TX.

We were sitting on the steps of the back patio when he decided to crawl up to us from the newly excavated/planted flower beds. Milk snakes (harmless) mimic Coral snakes (venemous fellow snake eaters) so as to scare away potential enemies. Years of National Geographic and Discovery Channel etched a little rhyme into my brain for telling the difference:

"Red and yellow kill a fellow, red and black venom lack."

There are several variations of the phrase, but this rhyming wisdom alone wasn't enough to convince my dad to let me pick him up.

Steve decided to pay us a second visit after initially disappearing down a hole in the grass. I went outside to get something I'd left behind and found him sunning himself on the back patio.

Having teamed up with Google to finally convince my father Steve wasn't going to kill me, I went to pick him up. He went to slither away and dad decided to help by trying to stop him with a giant push broom.

Steve didn't appreciate this too much and he got a little defensive...

...and tired.

So I decided to give Steve a break and just take his picture instead.

Thanks Steve!

Meet Brutus and Claudia

- two Green Anole (aka the American Chameleon)

Some Anole facts relevant to my story:

1 - It's mating season.

2 - While anole change color to blend into their environment they also do it to express emotion. Green is a normal, happy, healthy color. Dark brown is an expression of extreme distress.

3 - Males bob their heads and display large red throat flaps during courtship. If females are receptive they will bow their heads. If not, they will run away.

4 - Males are very aggressive. Sometimes they don't get the hint and will chase the females.

I first noticed Claudia outside the kitchen window. Then, when we went to take a closer look, Brutus pounced out of nowhere!

We weren't sure what was going on - at first we thought Brutus was trying to eat Claudia.
But that wasn't happening, so what was going on.....fighting? eating? mating?