Of Lizards and Kitties

Small lessons of the natural world must seem very gruesome from 36 inches off the ground. I rescued a smallish lizard from our kitty yesterday afternoon. I have done this before and assumed it was dead - or very close - but it eventually came to and ran off for his lizard home. This lizard, however seemed a little worse for wear. I gently scooped him up and let William take a close look. We looked at his very long fingers and toes, William noticed his tiny eyes that were sometimes open and sometimes shut. We set him in a sunny spot and locked the cat inside for awhile and went along with playing in the yard. William checked on the lizard and came back with reports "His eyes are OPEN!" "His eyes are CLOSED!! - He has TINY eyes!" Mr. Lizard never really moved, so I figured he was dead and brought him over to sit next to William and talk to him about how the lizard was hurt too bad, and that the kitty wasn't mean, but that's what they do etc. etc.. I'm mid-sentence explaining about all of the things that kitties sometimes eat when our little lizard cocks his head and looks over at me like he wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to bury him alive or anything. Much more hopeful now, we set his shovel under the azalea bush and go back into the house. When William checks him again, he's gone - run off for home at last. As we are in the middle of giving a jubilant 'good job lizard' we both notice that the cat has gotten out of the house and is sitting in front of his new prize of a jumping twisting pulsing lizard tail with a bloody gooey nub of an end flipping itself all over the place. 'Uh oh' I say before even thinking and I look over at William who gives out an exasperated sigh that he has clearly picked up from my lesser moments. His eyes are also as big as dinner plates and I can practically see his fluttering heart. He stutters trying to get out what he's afraid to say or ask - "Kitty ate my lizard!?" "No sweetie," I tell him. "our lizard had a small tail - this is a very big tail". This doesn't make him feel any better. This is when I launch happily into how lizards have very special tails so that when a kitty gets their tail it breaks off and they can run away and grow a new tail. Maybe this seems to magically unreal because he is giving me a doubtful look when he asks "Lizard is is kitty's tummy?" "No, sweetie, the lizard is o.k. - his tail broke off and he ran away." I end up drawing many crude diagrams of lizards and kitty's eating their tales and happy lizards with little broken off stumps where new tails are growing.

For the rest of the evening he went on with a continuous chatter to himself and his bath toys about lizards and kitties and tails breaking off and growing back. He used toys and fingers as props as he went through the story over and over. Finally I hear him asking me from his bath ..."What about when the mommy lizard asks the baby lizard 'what's wrong?'" He asks me this again, while he's laying in bed ready to go to sleep (and I hope NOT have nightmares) and both times I tell him that the baby lizard can tell his Mommy that a kitty got his tail, but he's o.k. and now he will grow a new one. This questions seemed easier to answer to the much repeated "Lizard is food?" that he kept posing. I wasn't sure how close that was going to come to the also gruesome realization that some of our food was once alive and possibly a baby or a mommy as well.

Thankfully he slept peacefully though the night and gleefully ran to his teacher this morning ----"sometimes kitties eat the lizard tail but it will grow back!!!"

maybe this is an odd post to leave after negleting this place for so long ...but... it's all I've got right now.