Leapin' Lizards!

We drove into the garage one day and noticed there was a cute lizard just hanging out on the wall outside of our garage door. It was right at eye-level as we drove in, so Elina and I could both see it clearly. It was different from all the green geckos we usually see, so we were intrigued. Elina immediately asked to see it, so she jumped right out of the van to go check it out. Then B, Eli, and I joined Elina. We were all oooohing and ahhhhing at it.

Suddenly, I noticed that there was something on the ground, right under the lizard. 'Lo and behold, it was a BABY RATTLESNAKE!!!! I freaked out, took the kids inside, and told B to do something about it. I'm brave, aren't I? This was the first time we'd ever seen a snake near our house. We've heard of other neighbors having snakes because the greenbelt is behind their houses, but the greenbelt doesn't run behind our house so it was strange a snake would come to our house. The other thing that gave me the chills was the fact that when Elina and I walked out of the garage to see the lizard, our feet had gone right passed the snake! Agh!

Well, B got the snake into a bucket and let the kids look at the snake for a bit. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't really want to see it. I'm a big chicken like that. Then B drove the snake somewhere grassy and far, far away.

After all this, Elina's favorite thing to do was check on the lizard. After a few hours, B and I started to think it was strange that the lizard wasn't moving at all....and that there were some ants hanging out close to the lizard. Hmmmmmm. By the end of the day, B and I were sure that the lizard was d-e-a-d. It seriously hadn't moved all day. Then B and I started coming up with stories about how it could die like that...hanging on the wall. We think that it must've gotten struck by the rattlesnake and then climbed up onto the wall and just died. Does that sound right? B and I aren't snake or lizard experts, so if anyone out there has a better guess, please share!

Anyway, the next day the lizard still hadn't moved. Of course, there were already things growing inside the lizard (if you know what I mean) and B had to get rid of the lizard. Elina wanted to know where her lizard went, so we told her he must've just gone back home. Poor lizard.

Sometimes I'll let the kids walk around in the front yard barefoot...I don't think I'll be doing that for awhile now.