La Réunion zoologique

Note: This entry would be MUCH better with pictures. Unfortunately, i'm still experiencing camera issues.

When i was telling people this summer that i was coming to Réunion, i would generally describe it as being off the coast of Madagascar, and the people who didn't respond, "you mean like in the movie!?" would often say, "oooh, are there lemurs!?" Well no, we don't have lemurs - the island's a little small for indigenous large mammals, but that doesn't mean we can't have plenty of fun with our fauna, as was made abundantly clear to me this week:

Episode 1:
Last Sunday was apparently "let your farm animals roam free day" on the island. Vanessa, Karen and i went for a hike and were surprised to discover upon returning that an entire heard of goats had taken over the picnic site where we'd left our car. Then driving home there were about 5 cows grazing - by the side of a highway OVERPASS. Bad francophone joke: Last Thurday was "La Journée de la Femme," last Sunday must have been "La Journée de la Ferme."

Episode 2:
Yesterday morning i wandered out to the kitchen, stuck a mug of water in the microwave to make tea, and picked up the box of muesli off the shelf. Thinking that it was getting low and that i'd have to buy a new box soon, i started to pour myself a bowl...and saw a tail starting to come out of the box. That's right. There was a flattened, crystalized LIZARD that had apparently been COOKED INTO my muesli. As in, it had clearly not just gotten into the cereal on my shelf, but had been in the box when i bought it, and while i was eating a good 3/4 of it. This is not the first time this has happened - Vanessa found a lizard in one of my muesli boxes while i was in India. I'm thinking about going to the newspapers - in November people found a mouse in a can of beans and it was headline news here for a week. And i have GOT to find myself a new breakfast food.

Episode 3:
Yesterday when i was at Jonathon and Katie's place about to go surfing with Jonathon, two birds had wandered into their house and couldn't get out. Katie and i watched, clueless as to what to do, as the poor panicked things hopped around their kitchen and fluttered aimlessly up and down their steps. I'm actually not sure if they ever got them out.

So there are my wildlife adventures for the week - e-mail me and tell me yours!

love y'all