Have you ever tried to ignore trouble? Yeah, thought so. (No need to raise your hand; you know who you are.)

Doesn’t work, does it? Somehow, it has a way of finding you anyway.

Aruba, 1994

Back in the summer of 1994 I spent about 4 months working at a refinery in Aruba. (Yeah, yeah, I know; it’s a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.) Without going into a long, drawn-out explanation of just exactly how it happened, Mrs. MZM and I decided to rent a house instead of me staying in the company-supplied trailer.

Anyhoo; what you see in this photo is a view from our back porch, looking out toward the, uh, “lawn”. Now, in Aruba (which is essentially a desert island), water is incredibly expensive, so growing grass was pretty much out of the question unless you had the water budget of a large hotel. However, as you can see, we still had plenty of bushes and trees to liven up the place and give it that homey quality. Bananas, papayas, limes; it was a fruit-lover’s paradise, I’m tellin’ ya!

However, all wasn’t sweetness and light, mind you. One drawback to livin’ on a Caribbean island are the (ugh!) ever-present iguanas. Them critters are pretty much everywhere – especially around where people live. I remember once laying out my towel on the beach at the Marriott (anyone can use any beach; it’s a law), and having an attendant quickly run up and warn me against laying on the sand. Doing so, it seemed, would likely result in an iguana tiptoeing across my tummy! They highly recommended using one of the zillions of chaise lounges to elevate my body off the sand. Apparently, iguana claws can cause some serious cuts!

Like I said, iguanas were everywhere, and our backyard was no exception. But they weren’t the only animals wandering around. Oh, no! There are herds of wild burros wandering around, checking out the trashcans whenever they can. (In fact, heaven help you if you didn’t chain your trash can lids down on trash day. You’ll be wandering around for hours tryin’ to find ‘em otherwise, ’cause those sneaky burros know how to knock the lids off  of the cans. Then, of course, the wind’ll blow the lids down the street for blocks!) Oh, and not to mention scads of loose dogs and cats…

Trouble Approaches

One day, Mrs. MZM happened to observe this little drama playing out in the yard. If you look closely just to the left of center in the photo, you’ll notice that horizontal line there. It’s an iguana, about three feet long. And, just to the right of him, about three or four feet away, is a cat. Although it looks like he’s unaware of the approaching lizard, he was actually sorta watching the iguana approach out of the corner of his eye, while pretending he hadn’t a care in the world.

Now think about it for a moment, won’t you? Here’s this… well, living dinosaur approaching, and the cat sits there, pretending there’s no problem! I mean, I’ve always considered cats to be pretty smart critters, but maybe this particular cat really IS stupid, y’know?

So lemme ask ya: If that iguana and cat ever get together, who do you think will be the most likely winner of that particular battle of wills? Yup; my money’s on the lizard.

Plan Ahead!

Yep; trouble is like that. If you see it comin’, you’d best do something about it before it arrives. You know why? Because once trouble has dropped in, you’re likely gonna be a mite too busy to decide what to do then, y’know? Far better if you make your important decisions ahead of time.

Just sayin’.

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Photos:

Who’s Stalking Who, Anyway? by Robert Hruzek

Who’s Stalking Who, Anyway? Detail

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Tags: Aruba, beach, Caribbean, cat, ignore, iguana, refinery, trouble