My Mother and Father tell tales of old, from the days I was too young to remember, when growing up in coastal scrubby Yanchep, near Perth, of my Mothers screams when making my bed in the mornings, to find I had shared it with a tick ridden 'bobby', yet again.
Her gradual acceptance that I, unlike other children my age, was never going to settle for teddy bears and stuffed toys.
My earliest reptile memories were of picking the ticks off relatives of the first 'bobbies'.
Dugites when walking through the coastal scrub. One taking advantage of the privacy afforded by the t-shirt of a sleeping man by the pool, while he was still wearing it.
Spikey lizards, to this day I am not sure of what species, rescued and rehabbed.
In Brisbane, at age 8, with a large turtle rescued from the gutter of a busy street around St Lucia UQ campus.
Onto Cairns, and Green Tree snakes slipping quickly away from horses hooves as we rode through the rainforest.
Back to Perth and dealing with Tigers and Dugites in the house and yard. Rescueing and rehabbing again, and discovering I couldn't keep any legally.
So back to Brisbane again, paperworked and legal.
