When I was five I drew my hand out of a woodpile with a foot-long alligator lizard hanging from one thumb. By the time I was six I had about that many terrariums in my room.

Could it be genetic? At two, my daughter tried to kiss a striped racer. She got bit in the face. But, she didn't let go. As she sat, teary and bewildered, her mom and dad explained, with sympathy for both parties, how the snake probably thought she was trying to eat it, and didn't understand that she just - loved it. Then she turned her face from it, squinted a bit, and gently hugged it to the side of her head, before releasing it. A week later it was still poking around in the yard, so I photographed it. It's one of the first photos I uploaded here.

I cared for a ton of reptiles after meeting that alligator lizard. I Raised shelties with mom as a kid, created a reptile research independent study unit in high school, got a degree in biology (another in English) in college. I published a little wildlife research, worked for wineries, worked for government and private biological research organizations, taught falconry very briefly, and for the last decade or so I've been most interested in regenerative land design with particular attention to the integration of animals into artificial ecosystems (I'm not convinced that there is any other sort, at this point. Either that or they are all 'natural').

The habitat of the 100'X100' chunk of land we call home also supports chickens, heritage breed rabbits, muscovies, several reptile species, over a hundred species of edible plants, and a handful of mostly discouraging mycological denizens. My daughter, now five herself, is still finding new insects here. We've identified over 75 bird species from our postage stamp plot, as well.

I'm grateful to iNat for helping me maintain the sense of wonder I want to model for my daughter, in my approach to the world.