And it is making a weird noise. I have heard this noise before, it is hard to describe – think of a combination of gurgling, a water drop and a high pitched hiccup – and I find it deeply distressing! ‘Something’ turns out to be a squirrel that has managed to maneuver itself into the corner of the storeroom, under some boxes and behind the camping table (the store room is a mess, even describing this has raised my heart rate and made me add “clean out storeroom’’ to the old to-do list). Thankfully Murray is home and responds timeously to this call of very mild distress, and annoyance.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. There have been several events which have started with “muuuur.” “Dad dad dadadadad…there is a rrrrrr (gurgled, slightly frantic muttering) over there.”, This is a small person who is panting, arms waving and hands showing the size of the ‘something’ while also practicing safety first, the way we have taught them. The other classic opener to this type of encounter is “Looove, bring the torch”. A change takes place in all of our voices, a change in pitch, a cold forced calm that indicates snake. Murray has gotten to know this well. It has been a while since we have had a snake around – the drought has caused the ecosystems to change somewhat. This is a small selection of moments.

At one of our homes in the desert, when our son was still very little and our daughter was even littler, we went through a patch where Kunene Shield cobras were seen regularly and all over the place. They were mostly tiny ones, which was not comforting to me, however, figuring that where there are small things there must be a big thing that created the small things and in some cases, if you know a bit about biology, probably two big things. I like to pretend I am calm and mother earthy. But I am not! My heart rate spikes with very little encouragement.

Back to the Kunene Shield Cobra snakes. After catching some and removing them I was lulled into a false sense of safety. One day we were stepping out of the house, small boy walking in front of us and small girl being carried, when one of the small Kunene Shields was also moving around outside our house, doing what snakes do. Our son was not paying attention and by the absolute skin of his teeth, missed standing on the snake’s head and only stood on a short part of its tiny tail. I screamed and shoved small boy in the opposite direction. This may have looked as if I was being pushy or nasty, but it was a rescue attempt. The snake made off pretty quickly and did not look back, leaving our son confused and me hyper-ventilating and wondering if I wasn’t actually asthmatic.

My least favourite critter of all time is the solifugae – dear reader, as I type this my body has broken out in goosebumps and a chill has gone down my back. There have been many moments with these hairy, utterly unappealing creepy-crawlies. One evening I was on the loo, as one invariably needs to be at times, and glimpsed a fast movement across from me. There is a special, unmistakable way in which these animals move. With zero thought my legs shot up, off the floor – stretched out in front of me and I called Murray. He knew what to expect, and entered the bathroom with a Tupperware container in hand. Catching them is always tricky because they are so incredibly fast and all their legs move, and their little fine hairs that serve a purpose jiggle – it is actually quite remarkable. One night we were sitting on the couch when my spidey-sense started tingling and I knew, before I saw the movement, that a solifugae was hanging out. It scuttled across the floor and under the table. Again, my legs lifted, I probably went pale and my breathing changed. Words were said, “it’s huge’’ and I pointed. Murray, convinced I was exaggerating, was quite casual until he saw it. The Tupperware container was too small, another larger one was found. This solifugae ran circles around us and in and out from under all the furniture, until it ended up under our son’s bed. I briefly wondered if we could lift our boy out and then set fire to the room. Husband was not impressed by this helpful suggestion! Eventually the spider was caught. Relief. Son slept through it all! We thought we would put the solifugae in a cooler box (yes, it was big!). As Murray tipped the Tupperware, something happened and instead of going into the cooler, the critter ended up on the verandah. It is only because Murray spent more time looking for it and recapturing it, that I didn’t move my entire family to the Arctic where such creatures don’t exist.

There are many small and many bigger creatures that love to share our homes. We always attempt a live capture and release. The truth is that we moved into their spaces, and it is only fair that we share with them. More often than not, there is limited time and opportunity for photos (luckily, for some of us!), therefore many of these are undocumented. TNN