The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

Salamanders Galore!

You'll never guess what I found in our yard this morning ... a little salamander!

I knew there were salamanders in our yard, but I didn't realize how many. When we first moved into this house, I was startled to find one while gardening in the front yard. It was living in a broken sprinkler system pipe that had been sawed off and then covered with two bricks to prevent someone from falling in the hole that was left. Travis and I would occassionally go out there in the early evening and check on our little friend. It was funny to watch it skurry back into the pipe each time we "discovered" it!

A few weeks later, we were installing a patio drip system on the back patio, and while moving a very heavy redwood planter box, we accidentally squished a salamander to death. I was so distraught. I thought we had killed our little friend from the front yard and was very, very sad. For the next two or three weeks, I went out every day to see if the salamander was stationed in her usual place under the bricks, but each day she was not to be found. I eventually gave up and convinced myself that we killed her.

Then one day, Travis was hanging out in the front yard waiting for me, and he decided to pick up the bricks. Our little salamander was back! Yaay!

A few months later, we were told that the front yard would be completely demolished, including all the vegetation and the existing (broken) sprinkler system. I couldn't bear the thought of the salamander being rototilled to death, so Trav and I agreed we would catch the salamander and keep her until they put the yard back together, then we could release her.

We were never given a date as to when the demolition was to occur, but two days after being given notice that the yard would be torn up, I came home from work to find a couple of men ripping up my front yard and tearing up the earth with a very large rototiller. I freaked out. Fortunately, they hadn't yet reached the part of the yard where "Sally" lived. I pulled up the bricks but couldn't find her. Not knowing how else to get her out of the pipe, I decided to turn the water on and flush her out. I guess I used too much force because the salamander came flying out of the pipe riding a rather large "wave" of water and smacked the side of the hole. I think the salamander was stunned by it all because it lay motionless for about two seconds ... long enough for me to scoop it up and put it in the only suitable container I could find -- an old fishbowl.

When Travis came home that night, we went to the pet store and purchased a terrarium, some moss, and sand. Travis put the terrarium together, and we even put one of the salamander's bricks in there to make it feel like home. Travis laid in some dirt from the salamander's original home, some sand we had purchased and then scooped out a channel in the dirt before laying the brick on top of it to create a tunnel. He filled the terrarium with moss and some rotting wood from our backyard. We caught some little grubby bugs from the salamander's hole thinking that would be an appropriate source of food.

We named the salamander "Sally," and she's been living with us for the last several weeks. (The yard is still nothing but a dirt wasteland.)

Fast forward to this morning. I had already learned my lesson about squishing salamanders, so even though I hadn't seen another one since that day, I'm always careful when picking up potted plants just in case. It was a good thing I was so careful this morning because low and behold, there was another salamander hiding under one of the containers!

I called Travis and asked what to do ... he suggested I catch it and put it in with Sally for company. So I did! We now have two little salamanders in the terrarium. Being nocturnal salamanders, they are both hiding out under the brick today and will probably emerge just after sunset tonight, as Sally usually does.

I'm thinking we should create a little salamander preserve in the ivy-covered flower beds surrounding our very shady patio. I could just release them back to the main patio area, but I worry that they'll be squished by accident at some point in the future if we don't move them away from the potted plants. Other than the once broken sprinkler pipe in the front yard, the patio is really the only place that's cool enough and shaded enough for them to survive. I'll have to see what can be done for them.

But for now, it's kind of exciting having these "exotic" little creatures living with us! They are called Arboreal Salamanders, and you can read more about them by visiting eNature.com's Arboreal Salamander web page. I guess we should come up with a name for the new salamander since Sally's already got a name. Any ideas?