AmBraCol , The Center Of God's Grace
They can really cover ground!
Thursday, December 29, 2022, 19:45

One day I heard the chickens fussing, stepped into the wash room which overlooked the chicken pen and saw a decent sized iguana that had just come under the barbed wire fence into the yard. I grabbed the old Glenfield 22 that we kept back there for such things, sighted in at the base of his neck and squeezed off the shot. He flipped over backwards onto his back, flipped over onto his belly and was off into the woods like a flash, my dogs giving him plenty of encouragement along the way. I was surprised as I'd expected to anchor him with that shot, and he didn't seem much phased.

Fast forward six months or so and another fuss by the chickens and I look out and see a broad side iguana near the fence line. I don't recall where I shot him, in the head I think, but he stayed right there. When I went over to look him over I found a long scar along his belly.

That was before I got my first glasses and didn't realize I needed them. Putting two and two together the sequence must have been more or less as follows. The iguana came into the yard and raised up on his front legs to get a better look. I mistook the glimpse of his belly as his neck and the bullet zipped right along, leaving a nice scratch that healed up pretty good. He didn't learn, came back and this time I had a better look and was able to put the shot where I intended, ending his endeavors to get into the chicken pen.

Later on I finally got glasses and was amazed! I'd NO idea you could see individual leaves on the trees at a distance instead of just a blur of green!

Anyway, they are fascinating creatures and I'm glad to see them making a comeback here, although I hope they don't get so overpopulated that they do irreparable harm to the bird life.

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I'm a peaceful man and prefer the pursuit of peaceful sports. Those involving teams and balls of any sort tend to be deleterious to one's body and promote violence by both spectators and participants.