South Florida Wildlife

Living with dogs, I get an up close and personal view of all the wildlife in our area, because Brody and Griffin will chase anything that moves (yes, you, little girl on the tricycle).

Bright green iguanas and small lizards are always a part of our landscape. But the worst animals, from the point of view of the guy holding onto the leash, are squirrels. Periodically we’ll notice squirrels racing around together, chasing each other up and down trees, across streets and onto rooftops. Sometimes one will almost seem like he’s playing with the dogs, darting in front of them, hiding behind trees and so on.

Even with all that running around, I rarely see dead squirrels on the street, though I did see one a few weeks ago. Either they’re pretty quick, or somebody in the neighborhood likes road kill.

My least favorite have to be the land crabs. During their season, they’re everywhere, with big nasty claws. I’ve had to kick them out of our courtyard, pry them from behind the hurricane shutters, shoo them from the garage. When one of the dogs surprises a live one, it will rear up on its hind legs and wave those nasty pincers. More often, though, we see dead crab parts in the street and along the sidewalk. It’s an effort to rein Brody and Griffin in and keep them from snarfing up what they see as a seafood buffet.

Fortunately, a few years ago the City of Hollywood delivered new trash cans for us with heavy lids, so we haven’t seen raccoon or possums for a while. I vividly remember being woken in the wee hours of the morning by raccoon banging on our trash cans in the courtyard and Sam barking wildly.

More recently, there was a hive of bees in a neighbor’s water meter and a long-tailed mouse in our pool when it was drained. I am the designated wild animal control person in our household,and I doubt that will change in the future.