I don’t know if this extreme heat is the reason so many reptiles are active and crossing our paths or if they are just extremely attracted to us. Whatever the case, our encounters this summer have been way too often.

Here at the office, a Lizard has made its way into the building and Crystal has been chasing it for two days. Actually, I think it has been chasing her. She discovered Lizard Thursday when she went into the old darkroom at the back of the building to change clothes for Zumba (that’s a dance/exercise class being held at BSCC two nights a week).

She probably could have skipped the class that evening because the “Lizarda Dance” she did in the dark room was all the exercise she needed. She came bounding out of there and into the office we share, closed the door and made me shield my eyes as she changed into the appropriate Zumba clothes and shoes.

She had shut up Lizard in the darkroom for the next person to deal with which, as it turned out, happened to be Crystal the very next morning.

I think she had forgotten about Lizard when she went into the darkroom on Friday, but Lizard had not forgotten her. This time he was waiting at the door and as she swung the door in, he sprang himself out - which made Crystal dance up the hallway again with the word Lizard shouted out before her.

This brought the entire office to bear on the small, very green reptile. At the time that only added up to Crystal, Susan and me. So here’s how it went: Susan shouted advice, Crystal threatened to whack him and I, armed with a plastic Mugshots cup and Tupperware lid, tried to corner and catch him.

On my first attempt I was pretty close on him when Crystal let out a yelp to try and scare me. It worked and I almost lost my cup among other things. After that it took about 10 minutes of starts and stops to get my nerve up to get close enough again to put the cup over him. That was the easy part.

On a suddenly constructive note, Crystal suggested discarding my Tupperware lid in favor of sliding an empty folder under the cup to transport Lizard securely to the backdoor and outside.

This worked out great, except I didn’t know how difficult it was going to be to get that close to the floor to do it.

Once we got him scooped up, with my knees popping like dry twigs, we released him outside and all was well.

Or at least I thought so.

Meanwhile back at the farm… That evening while eating supper husband Doug gets a call from a very excited Aunt Loretta who lives just across the road from us.

She had been picking blueberries and as she reached down to get some berries at the bottom of a particular blueberry bush, she hesitated because something didn’t look right about the ground just below.

It didn’t look right because on closer inspection she saw a Snake curled up in a “strike”position. She pulled back just in time, then immediately called us to come and kill it.

Doug went over and promptly shot its head off. It was a five-foot long rattlesnake.

Aunt Loretta has since sworn off blueberry picking. She said they were too small and dried up now to bother picking, but I believe the truth is it scared her so badly that she can’t even think about blueberries. I don’t think I would be hossin’ to pick them either.

Apparently no place is safe, inside or out. Of course, there’s a big difference in little ol’ Lizard and a rattlesnake. But they both created quite a stir just the same.

Be careful out there and stay cool.