A mongoose makes a mad dash across an empty highway in Puerto Rico. Curfews and alternate driving days have invited boldness in our neighborhood fauna.

As I have stated in the past, para-quoting my demi-sister Michele-- life in the tropics means drawing a line between yourself and nature.
Now that we are in our third week of house arrest-- I can report that there are several other millions of residents on this island who are perfectly content to have their neighbors sheltered in place; the animals.
Since the roads are virtually deserted ten hours every night, and completely deserted on Sundays, and half-deserted for fourteen hours every alternating day but Sunday-- animals on the island are beginning to realize they have the upper hand. Land crabs threatening the mail box; mongooses peering out at the brush line of the highway; iguanas moving even more unhurriedly than usual. Its as if the entire animal kingdom, normally so reticent in the suburbs, is suddenly throwing a kegger.
Now, Casa Clara Vista is pretty quiet to begin with. We are ensconced in about a half-an-acre of woods and grassland. But now, with even what little road noise we normally get gone entirely-- we are hearing birds (some pretty eerie sounding) that we have never heard before. Roz, who despite her parentage of chihuahua and rat-terrier, has never been particularly blood thirsty in her eight-years of life, has suddenly rediscovered her wild-side as well. Fruit rats and lizards fall daily, and even Amadeus (for whom chasing a string is an effort worthy of no more than two-minutes normally) has deigned to join in on the effort. We of course try to deter this behavior, but there is only so much one can do.
In a few weeks when we return to normal, I fear we are going to have a lot of confused animals on our block. In the past three-years, we have had six-months of curfews, and one can almost imagine a mother mongoose in a (Beatrix Potter outfit) patiently warning her charges about the dangers of that mythical thing called an "automobile."
Enjoy it while it lasts kids. Before you know it you'll be running at full speed just to catch-up. Just like the rest of us.
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