Dewlap Prowler

His owner picked him out as a hatchling, small enough for a shoebox. He grew past the tank, then the yard, then the owner's interest. They drove him to the Everglades and left him on the roadside. Now the law hunts him for existing.

His burrows undercut sidewalks, foundations, seawalls, and canal banks. He climbs into transformers and cuts power to entire blocks. The state deputized an entire population against one animal by declaring him invasive. No badge required. No license, no permit, no season.

We drained the marsh to pour those sidewalks. We paved the wetland to lay that grid. Nobody calls that invasive. They call it Florida.