I recently
discovered just how scary it is to witness something about two inches long
scurry under the drape. What was scarier yet was getting up the courage to
lift it to see exactly what was hiding there.
Turned out
to be…a skink. A lizard-y thing. A teeny, tiny baby one. When, exactly,
Missouri got lizards, I have no idea, but I happened to recognize this one
thanks to my years in coastal Georgia, where they’re called Blue Tails. I
remembered from my time down South that if you’re trying to catch one, you
inevitably want to grab it by the tail. The blue tail. And if you do, the tail falls
off to allow the creature to run away.
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"Fivelined skink" by Michael Holroyd - Own work;
Camera used was a Canon PowerShot SD500. Cropping and sharpening in Photoshop
CS2.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fivelined_skink.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Fivelined_skink.jpg
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That’s what
I’ve heard, anyway, not being a grabber of lizard tails myself (although I’ve
poked at a few fire ant hills in my time). This valuable skink-knowledge I picked
up chaperoning a field trip in Savannah when my son’s grade school class went
to a local wildlife place to listen to a herpetologist. Picture Jed Clampet
with at least one Ph.D. Also thanks to Dr. Jed, I remembered the little boogers
are toxic to pets. Unfortunately, that sneaky skink escaped when I went to gather my
lizard-catching gear.
In Georgia, I once dusted around a
mummified lizard carcass for months because it was sitting on my daughter’s
bookshelf with her toys and I thought it was one of those gelatinous
decorations that sticks to windows. So I feared a similar fate for this little
guy. Except I no longer dust as often, so he would’ve ended up much older and
furrier.
By the next
day, it was clear by the vigil held on the other side of the drape that the
cat had flushed out our lovely little lizard guest, who appeared unharmed…thanks,
no doubt, to that missing blue tail of his and the fact that our kitty is
clawless. This time I was prepared and able to put the skink outside, where he and his stubby tail wiggled off,
hopefully to a place where he can hang out and regenerate a new one.
I was also able to locate the
shriveled blue trophy, which was sitting, uneaten, next to the cat like a teeny
strip of skink-jerky.
It wasn’t till it was over that I
began to worry about how he got in. We’ve been working outside a lot, and I
can’t help but think about the horse that little cowboy rode in on. To my
repertoire of post-gardening spider-checks, I’ll be adding skink-checks from
now on.
Everything can
be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms—to choose
one’s own way. ~Viktor Frankl
Skink-jerky. Very funny.
ReplyDeleteNot so much in real life, though. Guess you had to not be there.
DeleteOkay, I need to know if your daughter put the mummified lizard carcass on her book case after it had already expired...or if, perhaps, it climbed up there and died of old age or a heart attack. Not that I'm making any sort of comment on your dusting habits, of course.
ReplyDeleteMy childhood pet, a black miniature poodle named Buster, was great at catching lizard tails. He sure looked surprised when the rest of his catch scurried away.
So these have existed in the area for a while then? I've lived in Missouri for a total of about 21 years now, and I didn't know we had lizards. Glad Buster survived the tails. Now that you mention it, the lizard may have died from dust inhalation. My daughter most definitely did not collect dead animal carcasses and store them with her toys. I will never in my life forget the sound of her scream when she made the discovery.
DeleteThere's nothing like coming upon an unexpected surprise like that, is there? Thank goodness your kitty was there to protect you!
ReplyDeletePat
Critter Alley
He really did do me quite a service by flushing our little guest out into the open!
DeleteCute story, Tammy. It's good that the skink got set free. And I always learn something when I visit your blog--I'd never heard them called "blue tails" before. But it describes them perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI'm just shocked that everyone else sounds so familiar with a creature I'd never seen here before! I'm half expecting my yard to get a camel infestation next. Thanks for stopping by, Donna!
DeleteYou are so funny! We had those up the McKenzie River in Oregon. They do kind of freak you out. Hey, Tammy, I'm back to blogging. We are "retired" and are heading out in the 5th wheel in a week or so. Headed to Mississippi ... the state that is calling my husbands name.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Kathy M.
So glad you're back to blogging, Kathy! Enjoy your trip to Mississippi and be sure to let me know if Missouri is on the way!
DeleteHaha! Your story reminded me of when we lived in Key West. Lizards/geckos were in the house ALL the time, and in multiples. I remember the first few times I saw one run across the wall I almost came unglued. Being assured by all the Key West natives that this is just a matter of course down there didn't make me feel any better. What did make me feel better was when I realized we had zero bugs or spiders in the house. The lizards ate them all! And they didn't bother us or get into anything, just sort of co-existed. And I always knew which ones had endured a run-in with our cat because they were without a tail (which apparently grows back). I saw the cat catch a lizard on the patio one day. He didn't kill it, just bit off its tail and let it go. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteYou sort of made me want to go get our little guy back again! I hadn't thought about the eating-bugs-part.
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