[Dailydrool] Lizard Time

[Tom Hickcox]

At 01:50 5/1/2011, Debbie Winchester wrote:

>Sister Daisy has a "love" for a tiny lizard, gekco type thing, about 
>4 inches long that has lived out by the deck for years. This could 
>be the same one every year, a new one heck, I have no idea how long 
>these things live, I pay no attention to it, but Sister Daisy is obsessed.

Here in the Lower Wetlands, we have three lizards that get the 
attention our our Myrtle, The Protector of Things Important.  They 
are the Carolina anole, the common green lizard with a red dewlap in 
males; the five-lined skink; and the Mediterranean gecko, a nocturnal 
species introduced relatively late here.

We live in a town house, which means we have a patio between the 
house and carport.  The anoles love the patio and, when Myrtle sees 
one, she goes on high alert, whining with perked up ears.  We let her 
out and she gets a crick in her neck watching the denizens.  Once, I 
brushed one down stunning it.  Myrtle picked it up very gently.  What 
she wanted to do was to play with it, doing it no harm.

When we are out walking, she can hear the skinks in the ground cover 
and noses around trying to find them.  The geckos come up on the 
screens at night hunting insects.  She peers at them from both inside 
and outside.

She is a very efficient protector.  We have had no attacks from 
Komodo dragons nor monitor lizards.

Her sister Mabel could care less.

Tommy in Baton Rouge