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Friday, February 10, 2012

Lizard foolishness


Today in our front yard there was a sudden flurry of activity.  My dog chasing something.

Then  my dog was lunging at something on the tiled pathway. It looked like some kind of worm, wriggling back and forth in a sort of curving motion. There was no head to this worm, however. One end of it was a straight transverse line with some dark coloration; and it tapered to a pointed tip at the other end. Kind of disgusting.

Then I realized what it was.

I'd seen a lizard earlier. We have pretty lizards here. When they catch the light their stripes, which run the length of their body, turn a vivid greenish blue.

This was the tail of one of these lizards. A large part of the tail, perhaps half or two thirds. I'd heard lizards can grow back their tails. I went to the internet to check.

To my relief, it looks as if the tail will grow back. Especially because there was no bleeding. It will take several months to grow, though.

The tail was twitching for a few minutes, especially if my dog jumped towards it. This wriggling is a distraction for the predator, so that the lizard can escape, missing some of its tail and some of its dignity, but keeping its life. I tried covering the tail with my shadow and then removing the shadow. The tail seemed to twitch when the sunlight fell on it again.

About fifteen minutes later, while I was sitting in the sun and studying my hieroglyphics book, another lizard showed up. This lizard was intact. It seemed to be surveying the scene of the crime. "You'd better go away," I said to it. "My dog will come after you." As if it understood, it scurried under a trash can.

Well, the weather is warming up and young and stupid animals are coming out and getting into trouble. The lizard that ran under the trash can probably went and found its foolish progeny and gave it a lecture, telling it to be more careful in future.

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