I am trying to follow-up with stories I promised to tell in other blogs in a timely manner. So, before I forget, here is the unvarnished story of the lizard whose tale I lopped off, which I mentioned in my recent blog (Why Me Moment).
A few years ago, in my previous Camden home out in the middle of nowhere (I miss that house ☹️) I was watching TV when my beloved girl Reese starts acting crazy, violently pushing her food dish around. So, of course I’m like what the f🤬🤬k? I walk over to see her attempting to corner a lizard (ok gecko, but still…) that had found its way into the house. It kept hiding under her food dish, hence the reason for attacking the dish 🤪. Now, I was home alone as my ex (then husband) was again away on business 🙄, so I had to do something to get it outside, preferably alive. I do the only thing I could think of and grabbed a plastic bowel to clamp down over it. After I trapped it under the bowel, I looked for a magazine to slide under it, effectively trapping it between the container and magazine so that I could release it outside. You know the maneuver…
All was going well until it wasn’t 😬. I lifted the bowel a little too high and the gecko darted out 😮. Now I do not do well with small critters that dart quickly – it gives me the willies (SHUDDER). So, I freaked out and slammed the bowel back over the lizard and that was when the tail lopping occurred 😢. I probably took off a good ¼ to ½ of an inch off the tail. After I got over the absolute horror (😱😱😱) of what I had done I moved on to revulsion as the tail was still twitching on my wood floor and I knew I would have to clean it up (🤢🤢🤢). I then moved on to my final emotion – utter guilt (😞😞😞). I HATE injuring animals, even if it was accidently. In my defense, however, he shouldn’t have darted and spooked me or even been in my house, so really it was his own fault (or so I tried to tell myself 😆).
I know most of you who know your science will say “don’t worry, their tails grow back” and I also knew that (hey I read Arm of the Starfish 😁). But I felt awful, and I had to get him out of my house because Reese was still trying to eat it. I retried the magazine/bowel trick again with much better success this time (the gecko was probably nursing its tail under there 😬) and I deposited him safely in the back yard. And for a year after, I could always tell when he was around the house because of the tail 🥰.
And now I have a skink living under the flashing on the ledge outside my front door. Coincidence? I think not.That is my tale of the tail. Hope it gave you a good laugh for the day 😁.
Happy weekend My Lovelies 💜.
My Lemons My Lemonade 