You know it's been raining too long in Florida when airport officials start delaying flights to give them time to clear the catfish from the runways.

But it seems that's exactly what happened yesterday at Melbourne International Airport. To be fair, the four catfish weren't exactly swimming. They were walking on their pectoral fins. (There is some weird wildlife down there. That's a "walking catfish" at left.)  But the fact remains they'd been emboldened by their expanding watery world to begin speculating on new property they seemed destined to inherit.

After all, Melbourne has been in the bullseye of this storm, clocking more than 20 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Fay and counting.

So, air traffic controllers had to delay incoming flights until crews could walk the runways and clear off the fish - and other critters - that had begun to flee their waterlogged homes and stake their claims on whatever was left to them.

In addition to the catfish, the airport wranglers rounded up two gopher tortoises (right), a blue indigo snake (left) and, of course, an alligator.

Don't believe me? Here's the report from WFTV in Melbourne.