Wyatt, pictured here, is my great grandson and this picture makes me proudly feel that he is a "chip off the old block." The reason?? Well, when I was a little boy I lived in a rather rural area and we had a huge back lot which was all dirt. Being as it was at the height of the Depression toys were few and far between. But I remember that my favorite toy was a "horny toad" as we called them. I would get up in the morning and search that back lot; under the wood pile and in every nook and cranny and I was almost never disappointed in finding a horny toad. Once we had caught a few we would make a city with balsam strawberry boxes turned upside down and put the toad under the balsam "shack" and then drive by in our toy dump or pick-up trucks and put them in the bed of the truck and haul them around in our make believe town. We would never be 100% at ease with this little critter because we had heard the old "wives tale" that when angered they would shoot blood out of their eyes". Well, in all those years of playing with them we never saw that happen. We would see them shoot their tongue out of their mouth to flick a red ant back down their throats. The tiny babies were the cutest little critters you would ever want to see and watching them scamper away from their captors was a joy to behold.

Wyatt found this particular little critter up at Wood's Canyon Lake on the Mogollon Rim when on a family outing. When it came time to leave for home, Wyatt's big cousin, Asher Rundio, being a protector of all things wild and alive, persuaded Wyatt to leave it there and let it return to it's natural habitat. Wyatt, with his soft heart, did so but not before a photo was captured for posterity and used in the invitation to his 4th birthday party.

I was at his party and Jungle Jill arrived toting sacks and boxes of reptiles both poisonous and non-poisonous. The non poisonous ones were passed around for the children to feel and pet and the kids were made aware of a wealth of information about each reptile. Those that were poisonous were shown by Jungle Jill in a HANDS OFF method. Some that were touched or just looked at were: Twizzler, the milk snake; Toro the bull snake; Goliath, the huge monitor lizard; Slither, the corn snake; Whirlpool, the plated lizard; Squeezer, the boa constrictor; Miss Red, the bearded dragon; Keeper, the king snake; and Rosy, the tarantula.

It was a party like I have never attended in my 83 years on this earth and I will never forget it and I am so glad for this experience so late in my life!