An Alligator in the Studio

Allright, allright, I'll admit it is a stretching the truth a a bit. You can see from the images it isn't really an alligator but a Northern Alligator Lizard. Today in the process of moving an old wood pile from the backyard my son Jay and I ran into some pretty interesting things.We found centipedes,millipedes and some really large beetles. The coolest thing of all was a Wood Rat nest with two full grown Wood Rats in it. They were absolutely adorable and pretty fat from all of the bird seed and acorns they have been eating.Jay managed to catch one of them but we ended up letting it go for fear of injuring it. One of them escaped into the trees. It was so amazing watching it climb away on the branches overhead. At the bottom of the wood pile I found the lizard and I brought it into the studio to photograph on an old tree branch before I let it go. For an Alligator Lizard it was actually fairly docile as it only hissed at me and never even tried to bite me like some of them do.I'm sure it's much happier now being back in the woods. God's blessings to all, chris