Welcome to the Dominican Zoo also known as OUR APARTMENT!

Hello Family and Friends:

Well here is another installment of our wacky and crazy life here on the beautiful island of Dominica.  Today I wanted to talk about the creatures that I have found in our local zoo - otherwise known as my apartment.  It all began last week, when I walked in the front door to find the largest cockroach I have ever seen (and I lived in NYC!) I screamed so loud poor Kelsey thought that I had found a centipede (oh did I mention they are the ONLY thing that's poisonous on the island....centipedes not the cockroaches)  However, with one quick swoop I grabbed my large can of BOP (sorry Mickiala if you read this I just had to do it) and I sprayed the roach, the kitchen floor, the screen and EVERY inch of the kitchen.

Once I felt confident that any friend who would have attempted to rescue this nasty roach I went to sleep.  The next morning I arose and went to the kitchen.  On the floor there were 10 or so little flies that had also fallen victim to the BOP.....but nothing compared to the massive suicide of fruit flies that were lying on the outside of our kitchen windowsill.  As I gathered myself and pushed through the whirl of emotions I cleaned up these poor innocent casualties and moved on with my day.  After all it's a dog eat dog or in this can bug kill bug world out there......

Fast forward a night and Kelsey and I are again coming home after dark.  After our encounter with the roach we made an executive decision that Kelsey should now walk into the house first.  Kelsey unlocks the door with the skeleton key (think Pirates of the Caribbean type key for a treasure chest)...and flips on the light to expose the lizard with weird webbed feet (after writing this I realized I should be more politically correct, but really what lizards are reading my blog???? okay maybe no one's reading? if you ARE reading out there leave a comment, I'm beginning to believe only my mom reads this...and she only does because she gave birth to me and has to!)

So believe it or not - I'm was actually okay with the weird webbed footed friend in our apartment.  Chalk it up to fast assimilation to my environment, but it occured to me (almost instantly I might add) that although gross, this little creature would EAT the even grosser (is that even a word) little creatures we found the previous nights before.  So no BOP was needed (I don't think it would kill the lizard, but you never know)...and we went to bed.

Now let's jump ahead just a few more nights to when we discovered and fell in like with Charlie....(for those on Facebook - we finally gave it a name).

Meet Charlie!!!! Our first question was do we make him our Dominican pet or have him for dinner?







Yep that's a crab (his or her body is about 6 inches wide)!  We were walking up to our apartment and there sitting on the bench right next to our front door was Charlie.  And keep in mind we are not near the ocean...we're about 4 or 5 blocks up from the road that goes along the ocean......no body of water to be found.

Unfortunately not all crabs are as lucky as Charlie....some have met a more dire fate.........................

Don't fear this photo was taken up on campus so I don't think it's Charlie. 

On another note, I wish I had a picture to show you one of the many cows that sometimes resides on the back side of our apartment.  I'm not really sure how this works, but from time to time at all hours of the day and night I will see a cow tied up to a tree out behind our apartment.  Sometimes there are cows that just roam the sides of the road eating grass, climbing the hills and pooping on the side of the road (that picture is just toooooo gross for this blog). And at times a goat or two or ten will run across the street.  This isn't however counting all of the numerous chickens, roosters, and stray dogs you will see on a regular basis.

Well I hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse into our zoo here in Dominica!

Until next time - take time to stop and notice the beauty around  you and be thankful :)