Sonoma Reptile Rescue Center
Sonoma County Reptile Rescue is run by Al Wolf out of his house near Sebastapol.
We were transporting this guy (an iguana), who seemed to enjoy the trip - at least as long as he was in the sun.
When you get there, it looks just like any other house.
But then you start to notice some differences...
Feeling brave, we delivered our passenger anyway, who was given and initial exam by Al.
He then joined the other lizards in his new home.
And he quickly settled in.
The activity, however, generated a lot of interest from other residents of the center, including the dogs and tortoises.
They started coming over to investigate from every corner.
And there were a lot of them. I think he said he as over 50 tortoises, of all different species.
Yeah, that guy really IS that big. And he was one of many that would follow us around just like a dog, only slower of course.
At least when they weren't eating. Which seemed to be a pretty constant activity.
At one point we wanted over to a tortoise doggedly throwing up dirt trying to dig his way to something... which we figured to be an object of .. amorous desire.
Hmmmm... that's a funny looking tortoise on the other side, but what the heck... this is California after all!
After spending some time playing with the tortoises outside, we moved on to the inside two rooms. One is a garage, and one is an add-on. Both had cages in them, and stuffed heads an animals of various kinds that were donated.
OK, so here we are and a word of caution is in order. The cages contain other reptiles. Reptiles that don't necessarily have arms or legs, if you catch my drift. There are also things with 8 legs. So if either of those bothers you, well, now is the time to click on this link:
Cool, you're still looking. So you must like snakes and spiders. Well, they are here Lots of them. Like this Northern Rattlesnake.
And just in case you couldn't make out the labels in the previous picture, they are probably worth noting.
Each cage has its own labels, and poison/anti-venom information (as necessary). Now, I'm not a snake guy, so I'm not even going to start to try and name these guys, so instead I'll just try to give a general impression.
Um... this guy was BIG!
Yeah, just like a cat curled up in the litter box.
Checking us out.
Trying to find the sports page, I guess.
Well.. with fangs he can't use an inflatable pool, after all.
Some seemed really.. um.. interested.
Others probably just realized I wasn't that tasty.
But there was LOTS of rattles going off (you can see one here (lower left).
Which tended to wake the neighbors up.
And also started others rattling (note the shed skin). I guess that was directed at us, unless it was telling the guys that started all the racket to shut the #$%@ up already!
But wait... Al must have ordered before midnight tonight because there was MORE! Lots more. In stacked bins. Yeah, they were smaller, but there was so many of them. And of course as you're peering at all of them intently he sneaks up from behind you and....!!!!!!! Good thing the camera had a wrist strap!
Now, it's true that the center is dedicated to reptiles, but along with the bison, this place can't be pinned down so easily. And nothing goes quite with turtles, lizards snakes and bison like... um.. spiders.
All of which I believe were poisonous (tarantulas, black widows, trapdoors, etc).
Or at least BIG.
I could have taken pictures all day, but if you're interested - just volunteer the next time they need a transport.