My Salamander

When I was a little girl, living in Oregon, my favorite thing to find, while out camping, was a little salamander. They are quite common in that state, especially because of how wet things are there. I would find a mossy spot near a babbling creek and build little fairy houses with pebbles, stick and pretty colored stones I would pull from the water. Every so soften, one of the upturned stones would render a sweet brown salamander with a bright orange belly. How fortunate I thought myself, if I could grab it quickly, and run to show mama and my siblings. We never tried to keep them, as they needed such a specific environment. (Sadly, for mama, the same could not be said of the Garter snakes my brothers were always trying to make into pets!)

One day last spring, while moving rocks around one of my spigots, I spotted a flash of yellow. Moving a couple more rocks revealed this pretty little guy. Because of the very dry climate we have here, I had no idea we had salamanders in Montana! My research told me these are called Long-toed Salamanders, apparently due to their longer middle toes...