Hello-Goodbye

You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

I say high, you say low
You say why, and I say I don't know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

Why, why, why, why, why, why?
Do you say good bye Goodbye,
bye, bye, bye, bye
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello hello, hello

I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello
Hela, heba helloa Hela, heba helloa

Crusty the Gator Survives!

The calls came from as far away as Hawaii: Spare Crusty. The gator, identified in a South Florida Sun-Sentinel story last week, was one of four who hung around rest stops and boat ramps along Alligator Alley in the Everglades. After being fed by humans, they had become overly friendly -- and potentially dangerous. Having lost their fear of humans, the law said they had to be destroyed.

But public attention, and an anonymous donor, has led to a permanent stay of execution. Three of the four condemned reptiles embarked Friday on a snappy new life in a shady gator pit at an animal exhibit in the Seminole Reservation in Hollywood. Crusty is still on the loose."They've got it better here than they did out there," said Todd Hardwick, the alligator trapper who helped arrange for the reptiles' new home. "They'll be cared for, get fed. They've got some female gators there."

Crusty's plight came to life in a story about officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission citing people for feeding the gators at Everglades rest areas. A total of 13 people have been charged this summer with the second-degree misdemeanor. Feeding gators causes them to associate people with food and increases the danger of attack, experts say. This spring, Florida alligators killed three women, including one in Sunrise. Feeding also means a death sentence for the gators. Crusty and three swamp-mates, whom wildlife officers named Speedy, Boomer and Freddy, were to be caught and destroyed.

But soon "Everybody was getting calls," said Hardwick, who fielded a half-dozen himself. "A lot of people felt sorry for the gators." One of Hardwick's callers was a Broward man who wished to remain anonymous. The man offered to pay the costs, $1,150 in this case, of capturing the gators. Trappers are paid from selling the meat and hides of the animals they catch. Trappers can sell condemned gators to a licensed animal facility at their own discretion, said wildlife agency spokesman Jorge Pino. Some wildlife officials received calls for a reprieve for the gators, but that didn't affect the agency's position, he added. "The process worked," Pino said. "An alligator was deemed to be a nuisance and it was removed. "Hardwick spent hours on the phone Thursday, notifying wildlife officials, resolving license issues and arranging for the Seminole Village to accept any captured gators.

That evening, trappers took to Alligator Alley looking for the four sociable critters. Within two hours, using a treble hook to snag and a noose to snare, they pulled two males and one female ashore. One male had lost part of his left foreleg. None appeared to be the 8.5 foot Crusty, named for a discoloration on his back. Next morning, the cold-blooded captives were sloshing in the pit at the Seminole Village under the care of manager Jimmy Riffle. "We're going to use them for educational purposes, to show what happens when you introduce food to alligators and the danger of it," Riffle said. Crusty may soon join them. Trappers will renew the search for Crusty this weekend.

Gator chews Shih Tzu

Largo, Florida: One moment, Shih Tzu dogs Fifi and Cassidy were romping on the shore of a freshwater lake. The next Fifi was gone, dragged into the water in the jaws of an 9-foot alligator, the dog's owner said. "I just can't describe how fast it was,'' Al Clark said. The attack happened Sunday evening about 3 feet from shore, Clark said. He said Cassidy charged the alligator after it snatched 10-pound Fifi, but Clark pulled the dog back and watched helplessly as the gator carried Fifi across the lake in its jaws. "If I'd had a gun I would have shot him,'' Clark told the St. Petersburg Times.

On Tuesday, a trapper caught a 9-foot-9, 260-pound alligator believed to be the culprit. Jeanne Murphy, a park naturalist and wildlife biologist at the Pinellas County Extension, said alligators may confuse small pets with more common prey such as birds, fish and snakes. "I would not recommend walking small dogs or even medium-size dogs along the water's edge,'' Murphy said.

Everglades Claims Young Life

A twenty year old man who lived to airboat, fish, and hunt in the Everglades collapsed and died after trudging through the scorching hot sawgrass to find help when his airboat got stuck. Willie Thornton knew the Everglades as a boy growing up in rural West Palm Beach. He spent every daylight hour he could four-wheeling near its banks, airboating with his father, or just horsing around there with his cousins.

But during a swamp outing on Friday, Thornton's favorite spot to relax became the scene of panic and hours later, his death. According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, Willie Thornton and his uncle, Danny Lee Thornton, launched their airboat about 8:30 a.m. Friday from a ramp at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach County. The pair were about three miles from the ramp, in Broward County, when their airboat got stuck in the mud about 9 a.m. The boat, which Danny Lee Thornton had recently purchased, broke down. ''I guess Willie thought he'd just go try to find some help, go back to the truck and get a battery and see if they could fix the boat,'' Gaydos said.

Danny Lee Thornton, 38, used his cellphone to call relatives and tell them the boat wasn't working. Meanwhile, Willie Thornton slogged his way through at least 12-foot-high sawgrass searching for the road where the truck was parked. Swamp grasses can make it feel 20 degrees hotter. The temperature Friday in West Palm Beach was 90 degrees. ''The people who live out there get lost on a daily basis,'' said Robert Gaydos of South Carolina, who grew up with Danny Lee Thornton. "The levees are adjusted, forming islands one day that disappear the next.''

About 6:40 p.m. Friday, the Thornton family called the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, touching off an extensive search with helicopters and airboats. A Thornton cousin found Willie Thornton just before 11 a.m. Saturday, a fifth of a mile from the access road out of the Everglades, authorities said. He had wandered about two miles from where the airboat got stuck. Rescuers believe he died of exposure. The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office is expected to make a final determination later this week.

The Thornton family spent Father's Day at a home west of West Palm Beach, talking about the hardworking man who died in a place that, for years, had given him great peace. (excerpted from story by Ashley Frantz and Jennifer Lebovich)

Alligator bites snorkeler's head

Apopka, Florida- (AP) -- A 30-year-old Apopka man received 33 stitches in his head after an alligator bit him while he was snorkeling alone, officials said. Michael A. Diaz Jr. was snorkeling in Rock Springs Run at Kelly Park on Thursday when he was attacked from behind, said a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "He reached back, grabbed the alligator and pushed him away." Diaz described it as a 3- to 4-foot alligator.

Carol Clark, a spokeswoman for Orange County Parks and Recreation, said Friday that trappers are continuing to try to find the alligator and the swimming area will remain closed until it can be caught. About 500 to 600 people visited the park Thursday, Matt Suedmeyer, assistant manager for Orange County Parks and Recreation, said. With the ongoing drought, many larger alligators have pushed smaller ones out of their territory. Activity is heightened during mating season as well.

11 Foot Saltwater Crocodile caught in backyard

Giant saltwater croc captured in yard in Dade's Cutler Bay
(excerpt from NBC 6,Posted June 1 2006, 12:20 PM EDT)

MIAMI -- A huge crocodile is heading back into the wild after being captured in a family's yard in Cutler Bay, news partner NBC 6 reported. It took six men from Pesky Critters to catch the 11-foot, 500-pound saltwater croc.
The crocodile will be released, not killed, because saltwater crocodiles are considered nearly extinct. Trapper Todd Hardwick called the sighting positive."There are more and more crocodiles turning up now because the animals are making a recovery, which is a great thing. Unfortunately, the citizens aren't so crazy about seeing an 11-foot crocodile in the neighborhood," he said. The family who lives at the home was shaken up, but no one was injured.

Slain gator was killer, officials confirm

OCALA NATIONAL FOREST -- (AP) --

Wildlife officials confirmed Friday that an alligator they had captured and killed last week is the one that fatally attacked a Tennessee woman while she was snorkeling in a secluded recreation area.

Trappers caught the 11-foot-4-inch, 407-pound alligator last Thursday in Juniper Creek, near Lake George, where Annemarie Campbell of Paris, Tenn., was attacked.

Wildlife officials who performed a necropsy on the alligator last week said the animal bore scratch marks on its snout and a stab wound in its right eyelid, but there was nothing in its stomach.

On Friday, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Joy Hill said their investigations, witness statements and a comparison of the alligator's teeth to marks on Campbell's body confirmed they had the right animal.

The body of 23-year-old Campbell was found sticking out of the alligator's mouth on May 14. Friends beat the reptile until it released Campbell's body. Her death was the third fatal alligator attack in Florida this month.

Gators Kill Two more Women!

SALT SPRINGS, Fla. - An alligator fatally attacked a 23-year-old woman Sunday near Lake George, authorities said.

The woman had been staying at a secluded cabin near a springhead that feeds into the lake, said Marion County Fire-Rescue Capt. Joe Amigliore.
"The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator's mouth," Amigliore said. "They jumped into the water and somehow pulled her out of the gator's mouth."

The woman, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her stepfather, who had tried to help her, was treated on the scene for a hand injury, said Amigliore.

The attack occurred near lakeside recreation 7 miles south of Salt Springs, Amigliore said. Authorities were searching for the alligator Sunday night. Salt Springs is about 40 miles southeast of Gainesville.

Meanwhile, Pinellas County authorities said a woman whose body was found Sunday morning in a canal in an Oldsmar subdivision was likely killed by an alligator.

Judy W. Cooper, 43, Dunedin, was found with animal bites that were consistent with an alligator, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Why she was in the area, where wildlife officials said alligators are frequently spotted, was not immediately known.

An autopsy determined that an alligator "did play some part in the victim's death," though the cause of death was pending and the medical examiner's final report will not be released for at least four weeks, sheriff's office said. Oldsmar is 20 miles north of St. Petersburg.

In the past week, four women have been attacked by alligators. Three of them were fatally mauled and partially eaten. What's going on? Is it the constant construction into areas that used to be part of the Everglades (or other wilderness swamps?)? Are gators just hunting in places were they used to find deer; but now it is full of people?

Dusty makes a new friend

Time to take Robby home for a visit. Unfortunately, Dusty doesn't know her own strength, and little Robby seems to be getting the squeeze!

Hope springs eternal, and little Robby the Rodent takes one last look up to the heavens, hoping that the hand of a higher power will save him from impending doom.

Killer Alligator Eats Woman

SUNRISE, Fla. - Wildlife officers captured an alligator Saturday they believe was responsible for fatally attacking a woman while she was out jogging.
The 9-foot, 6-inch alligator was trapped just under the bridge where Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, was last seen, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Dani Moschella said. Two human arms were found inside the alligator's belly, Moschella said.

Authorities still aren't sure how the alligator attacked Suarez. Witnesses had reported seeing a woman matching Suarez's description dangling her feet over the water's edge on Tuesday, but no one saw an attack.

A medical examiner said the alligator attacked while she was on land and then dragged her body into a canal. Suarez's death is the 18th confirmed fatal alligator attack in Florida since 1948, Moschella said. Nine other deaths are unconfirmed.

Dusty meets Mickey!

Dusty the Ball Python cruising through her neighborhood.

What's that up there on the branch?

Another cousin of Mickey Mouse has dropped by selling magazine subscriptions! This mouse was smarter than most and quickly realized that a longer life was only possible by climbing out of the terrarium.

Unfortunately, the little branch does not go all the way to the top. Little Mickey was hoping for a miracle at this point.

Do mice believe in an afterlife? Did little Mickey make it into Disney World? Did he see a bright light and hear the Mickey Mouse Club song as Dusty squeezed the life out of him?

Was he still alive when Dusty started to swallow him face-first? If there is such a thing as reincarnation, did little Mickey get reborn as a snake? Perhaps one day he will be a famous lawyer?

Playing mouse the hard way

Dusty the Ball Python sees the mouse

Snake strikes at mouse

Dusty crushes the life out of the mouse

Snake eats mouse, head-first

Men charged in alligator barbecue

By JENNIFER BABSON excerpt from Miami Herald

KEY WEST - Two Keys men face criminal charges after wildlife officials say they killed and butchered a protected American Alligator last month -- serving her up at a backyard barbecue a few days later.

The two men, Timothy B. Goll, 18, of Marathon, and Jordan T. Milo, 20, of Big Pine Key, have been charged with killing the animal, a third degree felony.

State and federal wildlife investigators say two other people -- both high school students, one a minor -- are also believed to be involved in the March 24 incident. They have not yet been charged.
The men are alleged to have shot the female adult gator and then beaten her death.

"They apparently used a pellet gun to disable it and then used a baseball bat to kill it," said Lt. Steve Acton, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is investigating the incident along with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The animal's unwanted body parts were discarded in area canals and later recovered. The gator lived in a freshwater pond on Big Pine Key. The incident is among several crocodile and alligator killings that have occurred in the Keys recently.

Five Dade County men were charged in a December incident in the Upper Keys in which an American crocodile was captured, dragged behind a vehicle, and killed.

Early last month, two endangered American crocodiles were found dead -- apparently from gunshot wounds -- in the Lower Keys. Their carcasses were dumped along remote areas off U.S. 1.

Texas Yellow Mud Turtle

This is my Texas Yellow Mud Turtle. It is about four inches long. It is a pretty neat little turtle. I have it in the ten gallon tank which has tropical fish also. The small mud turtles do not seem to be very fast when it comes to hunting fish, so the tropical fish seem to mostly survive in the tank. I have a variety of fish. Glass shrimp, neons, mollies, guppies, zebra danios, a red-tail barb, and I had a catfish but it looks like it was eaten by the turtles.

The Texas Mud Turtle has a sort of mustard color. It is named a Yellow Mud Turtle because the skin on its neck is sort of yellowish. It is different from the standard Mud Turtles that I have gotten in the past.

It also seems to be more shy and thoughtful. That may sound silly, but this turtle will look around and turn her head at things. The little turtle seems to be thinking about what to do. Too bad turtles can't talk, it would be interesting to hear what it is thinking about.

She has a very short tail, so she is a female turtle. My child has named all the turtles but I don't remember this one's name. This little turtle also seems to enjoy looking at its own reflection in the glass of the aquarium. When I see the turtle doing that, it reminds me of that song by Siouxie and the Banshees (Through the Looking Glass). The larger turtles in the other aquarium are used to looking through the glass. They can see me when I walk by, and they start sticking their heads out of the water and paddling when they want food. I guess it must be weird to be a turtle in an aquarium looking out at people walking by.

Musk Turtle is growing

The Musk turtle is getting bigger. Now that this one and the Texas Mud turtle are in their own tank, I think they will do better. The larger turtles in the other tank have a tendency to nip at the smaller turtles.

I found Dusty, the Ball Python!

After four months missing in action, today I found Dusty! We were all overjoyed to see that the baby snake was back! I was shocked to find it, and also very happy. There I was playing ball with my dog Brownie, when the rubber Hi-Bounce ball bounced over a book shelf and then rolled down the back of the shelf and got stuck between the book-shelf and the wall. These Super-Balls are about two inches in diameter, and Brownie loves running after them because they bounce around so much. When the ball bounced behind the book shelf, Brownie kept wagging her tail at the book shelf and whining.

I did not have a spare ball around, so I moved the book shelf to get the ball. When I moved the book shelf a little, the ball rolled all the way down the wall and under the book shelf. So I had to move the book shelf completely away from the wall in order to get the ball. As I pushed the book shelf about a foot away from the wall, I saw the balled up snake rolling on the floor! Apparently it had gone into hibernation, and I had awakened it? What is funny is that my dog Brownie has often sniffed at the bottom of that book shelf. Since I have lost a few of those Hi-Bounce balls when they have bounced behind various furniture (because I am not going to move the furniture to find a little rubber ball), I had always thought that Brownie was sniffing at some lost ball.

On the floor area that where the snake had been was the old waste of the last mouse it had eaten back in December, and a sloughed-off skin. It took a few minutes to clean tht up, as the stuff had all dried into the floor (fortunately it is not a rug!). Apparently Dusty had moulted once at some point. The snake had a tiny bit of skin that seemed to have been rubbed off, possibly when I moved the shelf. You can see the abrasion in this photo (about two inches on the ridge of its spine, near the right-hand corner of the photo) of Dusty that I took when I put it into its home. It stayed in the water dish for a while. It was too late to go to the pet store and buy a mouse. Hopefully Dusty will be hungry!

Map Turtle hunts goldfish

Here is Coconut the Map Turtle catching another goldfish. One of the perils of keeping turtles in an aquarium is that when they manage to climb out they fall on the floor and sometimes their shells get dinged or even cracked. Coconut has a ding on one of its front shell plates. I guess that is why many people that have turtles keep the water level low. However, I prefer to see them have as much space as possible to swim around in, so I keep the water near the top of the aquarium.

Here is my Map Turtle catching a goldfish. This turtle is named Coconut. I am not sure if it is a boy or a girl. The tail is pretty big, and that usually indicates it is a male. On the other hand, males usually have a slightly longer tail. This turtle is less than three years old. We got Coconut when it was a baby turtle at the Snakes reptile store.


Coconut the Map Turtle snacking on a goldfish a couple of days ago. The love the feeder fish.

Yellow Belly Turtle

This is one of the two Yellow Bellied Turtles that I have right now in a twenty gallon long tank. They are pretty friendly and are hand-fed, except when I put the feeder-fish into the aquarium. They love swimming around snapping up those goldfish!

Florida Box Turtle

I had a few box turtles in the 1980s. I tried leaving them out in the yard and they invariably would dig a whole under the fence and leave. I recovered a couple, but I wonder where the rest of them went. I hope they did OK. Keeping box turtles in a cat litter box was the other alternative. There were some large plastic contatiners that were bigger than a standard aquarium and easier to clean out because they are lighter. The box turtles never seemed very happy.

Most aquatic turtles seem more sociable and happy in a clean aquarium, and they respond to me when they imagine that they are going to be fed. My box turtles on the other hand never warmed up to me. I let them have the run of the yard, so perhaps they were just not getting enough human contact? I have always liked them a lot. They are cool to watch walking around. Some day it would be nice to have some land and build a turtle habitat.

Update: 04/16/07: Faizal recently posted a link to these cool photos of his Star Tortoise being born. The photos are very amazing, I am glad to have seen them!

Musk Turtle

Musk Turtles are climbers! This little turtle climbed out of its aquatic habitat and then went climbing up the chicken wire. The balcony was on a second floor, so the turtle was lucky it did not go the other way and fall down to the pavement. This photo is from around 1979.

American Crocodiles on Dania Beach

The American crocodiles living near one Dania Beach neighborhood have been there for years, but on Monday they got plenty of media attention. BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
Miami Herald

For the three crocodiles who live in the lake at the Watermark condominiums, Monday started out as just another day in paradise. At least one of the reptilian residents took his usual morning sunbath on its usual spot, when suddenly, they became television stars.

TV news helicopters fluttered overhead. Reporters and wildlife officers appeared on the lake shore. Neighbors gathered to see what all the fuss was about. But it was much ado about nothing. Someone, it seems, had called the Broward Sheriff's Office about the crocs, thinking they were some kind of menace.

Not only were the creatures innocent of any criminal wrongdoing, they're special guests in the Dania Beach neighborhood -- protected as a federal endangered species. Only an estimated 1,000 crocodiles are left in Florida. And the Watermark crocs were not threatening anyone, said Officer Jorge Pino, spokesman for the South Florida office of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Neighbors should be OK -- as long as they leave the animals alone, Pino said. ''All they want to do is be left alone, sun and swim,'' Pino said. ``At this point, all we have is crocodiles being crocodiles.'' If the crocs were a threat, they would be moved to a croc sanctuary near Turkey Point, in southern Miami-Dade County, he said.

The rule is different for alligators, which are not endangered but listed as threatened in Florida. More than a million alligators live in the state, Pino said. Wildlife officers will have an alligator killed if it poses a threat to people.

The Watermark crocodiles are well known, both to neighborhood residents and to wildlife officers. Biologists once tried trapping the oldest for study but failed, Pino said. ''Now our crocs are famous,'' Watermark resident Bette Weber said. ``I'm so glad they aren't taking them away.''

Two are about 9 feet long and about 9 years old, Pino said. The biggest, and oldest, is more than 13 feet long and probably more than 13 years old, he said. The oldest has been in the neighborhood for years and often could be seen skimming half-submerged in the water. His favorite sunbathing times: early in the morning and about 3 p.m., resident Della Moore said.

''My kids have known him for years,'' Moore said. The two newer crocs arrived after Hurricane Wilma, she said. The crocs stay close to the water's edge but began venturing farther onto land after Hurricane Wilma knocked down trees and the stumps were removed, Moore said.

The crocs recent appearances farther out of the water worried Joann Brave. ''If somebody came, was not aware, and disturbed it, who knows what happens?'' Brave said. Neighbors don't know the gender, calling the crocs he or she at will. A few say alligators until corrected.

American crocodiles can be distinguished from alligators by their longer, narrower snouts, greenish color and always visible teeth, University of Florida ecologist Frank Mazzotti said. American alligators have rounded snouts, are black as adults, and keep all their teeth inside with closed mouths, Mazzotti said.

The key is finding a way to live together, Pino said. It is illegal to touch, feed or harass a croc, Pino said. Staying away is key. Crocs are afraid of humans but become dangerous when they lose that fear, he said. Feeding them is worse, Mazzotti said. Then they associate people with food, which could have unfortunate consequences, he said.

My ball python is gone!

My ball python was getting pretty big, though it was not really more than two feet long. One day, I took a couple of books off the top of the terrarium, and when I came back the top had been pried open and the snake was gone. I figured that it was under some furniture or behind something, and that after a few days it would show up. Several weeks later, I have never seen it again. I guess it must have taken off through an open door. Since this property has lots of common area that is landscaped, a snake would not have much trouble escaping. Finding mice on the other hand, might not be as easy. Then again supposedly there are mice and rats in most urban areas.