The Nutty Lady from DeLand By Cheryl Switzer

There is a somewhat elderly, somewhat strange lady in Deland who sits on her back screened in porch and observes all of nature around her. She just loves to watch the birds and squirrels and how they all seem to sense when her 3 cats have all gone into the house and they can finally eat, drink and bathe in peace. She can sit for long periods of time with her binoculars observing all the different kinds of birds that show up, and laugh at the antics of the squirrels as the try (and succeed) to eat out of the “squirrel proof” bird feeders.

But what really makes her seem a little strange to some people is her fondness for the geckos that live inside her screen porch. In fact, she has created an outdoor environment for them in the corner of her porch. She has set up a terrarium with dirt, live plants, sea shells and a branch that they can jump on and go in and out of the terrarium whenever they want to. She also feeds them (the best meal worms PetCo has) and waters them every day. The love to be misted.

When its feeding time, Stubs and Lizzie (the current tenants) come running down the screen, jump on the stick and wait for the lady to drop those yummy little meal worms into their feeding dish. Um um good!

One day the strange lady called her husband out to the porch and happily exclaimed that Stubs was a father. He had to think on that one for a minute but just gave her a very funny look, shook his head and went back into the house. She didn’t understand why he wasn’t as thrilled about the babies as she was, but Oh well. So, she went ahead and created a little nursery for the babies with their own water dish, shell and leaves. In return of her kindness, the little babies eat all the little bugs and ants that the lady does not want in her screen porch.

Stubs and Lizzie and the babies live a fairly happy existence on the strange lady’s porch as long as her cats don’t sneak in. You see, the cats would only love to play with them but the lizards just don’t believe that. So the lady tries her best to keep them happy, fed and safe.
This strange, somewhat elderly lady is me and its mainly my husband who thinks I’m a little overly nutty about my critters but he loves me so much that he is willing to put up with just about anything from me as long as it makes me happy, and how can you not love a man like that? Thank you, Lyman, for loving me that much.