Another Librarian's Post About A Reptilian Showcase
And A Bit Of Friendly Digital Face Slapping....
So yesterday I was minding my own beeswax, just spending my time distilling lavender and hyssop hydrosol, when I received this text:
That statement of opinion was followed by a picture of @jacobtothe with an alligator posing on his head.
Later, when I was perusing JT's latest blog post about Reptile Man visiting his library branch, I read this tidbit of hornet's nest pokery:
Did JT really just throw down the library tale gauntlet on moi? Doesn't he know after working with me for more than a few years that I am a bit of a showboat. I mean, we made a board report together that was a parody of The Office, not to mention that we rewrote Gilbert and Sullivan's Modern Major General as a librarian song and sang it in said board report. Guess he just has this coming.
So, the Reptile Man from Washington state paid a visit to our little library today. After we set up a small herd of chairs on the library lawn for patrons to sprawl in, we noticed the Reptile Man backed into a parking space next to the sidewalk. How did we know it was he? Well, his vehicle was a little on the subtle side, but we figured it out:
Unlike the people at JT's branch, we podunk folk figured that it was a good idea to hold a reptile educational talk outside. We like our maintenance guy. That poor creature is still figuring out how to scrub alligator urine out of that library branch's carpet. Not so at ours, our grass was fertilized good and proper!
As a crowd started to gather, the first thing that I noticed was the lid trying to pop off of one of the larger bins that Reptile Man had placed next to the table that Miss M and I had set up for him. I had the library's new camera ready to go, for whatever was in that bin was a coming out.
Sponge Bob Scale Pants was an African tortoise. He was cool, and I so wish that I could put away shrubbery like he can, for it would totally make an all you can eat salad bar worth it!
RM placed the tortoise with an appetite onto the ground with a head of romaine lettuce. Dude ate voraciously! His mouth moved more than a major news outlet's anchor's during a political primary!
Next came an assortment of lizards and snakes. One nice thing about the Reptile Man was his level of zen. He was able to deliver an educational program about the benefits of reptiles to the world's ecosystems in a way that wasn't preachy, yet you were sitting on the edge of your seat awaiting more trivia tidbits.
Lucy the alligator was one of the most enjoyable bits of the show. RM began explaining to us about how Lucy knew a "trick," right as he said that fateful word, Lucy let loose with a stream of urine that splashed off of the concrete patio and onto RM's shoes. There were quite a few giggles, and RM, as droll as ever, said:
Lucy knows ten human words, and can faint on command. She also had the kindest eyes and the most placid disposition I have ever seen in any animal. She just took everything in like the tortoise on Finding Nemo. I kept waiting for her to say, "Righteous, Dude."
The program was cool enough, but the real fun started after the show. RM turned the tortoise loose, handed out a 1 yr old python, stuck a bearded dragon onto some kid's shirt, and started walking around with Lucy, plunking her onto people's heads for "Alligator Selfies."
The python was a sweet lemon yellow and white creature and she had no less than 10 people touching her at any time as she crawled along the lawn. I was really worried that someone was going to step on her, and before long found her wrapped around my left cowboy boot. Somehow, over the next few minutes I found myself on snake pose and drape duty, and helped place that affable creature onto tons and tons of children and adults for pictures and pets. She took it all in stride, never got irritated, and I have to admit I really enjoyed hanging out with that snake for the next hour or so.
Nothing dispels myths or fears like hands-on education, and it was really amazing seeing people that were terrified of reptiles overcoming their fears and petting or holding the creatures.
And @jacobtothe, you win one battle by getting the alligator selfie first. True. However, I got an alligator selfie, a snake selfie, and turtle kisses, so this pressure that you speak of, I let it roll off my shoulder, kind of like the python....
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