When we first moved here, I was intrigued as I visited in carefully decorated homes to see a lizard or two crawling up and down the drapes. I found it a rather unique decoration.
At home when my children caught lizards and proudly brought them to me, I maintained my professional motherly demeanor and never touched the lizards. I made sure the lizards did not touch me.
I kept up my cool even when a family member suggested we keep a couple lizards inside. I listened and allowed the lizards inside. I listened and allowed the lizards inside because I was assured that the lizards would catch insects in the house.
Clinging to the curtains, the lizards stayed on their side of the room. Clinging to my lounge chair, I watched them from my side of the room. We got along famously until relatives visited with their medium-sized, well-trained dog. They wanted to keep the dog in my house.
I am not comfortable with dogs in the house.
They were not comfortable with lizards in the living room.
We compromised and banished both dog and lizards to the yard.
After the company left, the lizards stayed outside because I had discovered a dead, dehydrated lizard under the drape. With air conditioning and closed doors, most flies didn’t have a chance to get inside to be eaten by lizards.
Eventually the banishment to the outside world and nature was extended to other creatures, especially turtles.
Every spring turtles amble across the highway defying the odds with cars, trucks and semis. We liked to stop and rescue the smallest ones and take them home for observation before releasing them again.
As vulnerable as they are on the highway, turtle are tough and can survive a long time without food. It’s a good thing, too, because one escaped its cardboard box while in our house.
We all looked for him, but we could not find him. We assumed the turtle had found his way outside sometime when the door was open.
A couple weeks later, when I was alone in the house, I heard an ominous scratching and scraping sound as I walked down the hall to my bedroom.
I followed the sound, tracking it to the closet in the children’s bedroom. Holding my breath, I cautiously opened the door.
There, upside down among the toys, was the saucer-sized turtle, waving its feet, seeking leverage to turn itself over.
I picked him up ad put him outside. Turtle visits were abruptly shortened to a few hours in the yard before their release back to nature.
Dehydrated, topsy-turvy turtles in the closet do not intrigue me.
But turtles, lizards and fuzzy caterpillars intrigued one of my children immensely, especially when fuzzy crawlies covered that child’s hands.
I smiled as warmly as I could at those hands. “Isn’t that lovely. Why don’t you take them back outside and pt them back into the tree so they can live?”
Most of the caterpillars made it safely to the tree. However, a few died from exposure when their fuzz was literally petted off their backs.
With lizards, turtles and caterpillars exiled from the house, only the hamsters and a cat roam beneath our roof. It’s a good thing their fur doesn’t fall off from petting or they would be bald.