Critters

There’s a lot of life around here – some of it shows up rather unexpectedly. Some of the critters appear to have been domesticated at some point or to some degree, but have either been abandoned or wandered off. Here’s the latest of these that are either a definite part of Lola's Corner or who have simply shown up in our neighborhood recently.

First we have the three piratas, three very Chihuahua-like Puerto Rican satos who appear to be related and have decided to move into the calle (small road) that leads to the beach. We call them the tres piratas because they lay in wait and ambush us as if to steal our treasures whenever we go by. This includes when we walk the dogs on the beach, go to snorkel ourselves, or ride the horse. This behavior is repeated with anybody who dares pass by. They are liable to lunge at you from behind, yapping away, although they back off quickly when give a loud “Psst!” sound or when the horse turns towards them.

Then we have our latest aviary-type added to our hummingbirds, banana kwits, swallows, and evening bats. He’s a rooster…yep, rooster. He moved in to the lot next door two days ago and although the city-side myth of life tells us that roosters crow at dawn, this is in fact only a very small part of the story. He (in keeping with others we have met on the island) crows all day – from pre-dawn until dark. Sometimes he crows as often as 4-5 times a minute. Apparently, this attracts chicks…or more precisely…chickens! Because we’ve now seen at least one chicken wandering the parking lot in search of the machismo man of her dreams. Now…if we can just figure out where she’s laying eggs, we will have either baby gallinos running around or fresh huevos for breakfast!

Jazz is officially in charge of keeping the Puerto Rico Lizard Warning System (PRLWS) working. He goes into full point regularly when he sees a lizard and while he rarely catches them, it’s not for lack of trying. He particularly likes to find and stare down “Dobby,” our house lizard on whichever wall or ceiling he’s on during the evenings.

Then there’s Gilbert. He’s our garden toad. Weighs in at about 5 lbs. near as we can tell and can be quite intimidating when he’s standing in front of the Ola Lola bathrooms. And, speaking of bathrooms, we have our Coqui Cleaning Crew signs in there which explain that the coquis, tiny Puerto Rican tree lizards which are in there at times (under the toilet seat and in the sink drain), are inspecting the premises for cleanliness. (This may not be entirely true, but they are harmless and we just want people to smile rather than scream when they see a tiny frog jump off the wall into the sink.)

These are just some of the critters in our yard and the lot next door…later we’ll talk about the mongooses (mongeese?), pelicans (or Puerto Rican “penguins” as Elaine calls ‘em), land crabs, fish, terns, egrets, and iguanas. We got ‘em all!