Special Delivery
Things You Don't Usually Hear in Domestic Conversations:
"Damn! I forgot to check the mail for lizards!"
Seriously. It happens.
Context: I had just brought in the mail a few days ago, and I had, in fact, forgotten to check for lizards. In other words, I forgot to make sure that none of the assorted small lizards that live on and around our home happened to have been hanging out in the mailbox at that time.
They do, you see, and if one of them is on the mail, it will freeze and cling tight until the mail is inside, and then leap off and skitter around inside the house, and if we aren't able to catch it and put it outside, it usually dies within a few days -- there's not enough food for them to find, and they usually can't find water. And this is sad.
In this case, it was a small anole, which ran around the house, evaded capture, hid under a bookcase, and was eventually found on the couch a couple of days later. We managed to catch it safely and evict it, and the same lizard was spotted a few days later, so it survived the harrowing experience. (It was a temporarily tailless lizard, which made the follow-up identification possible.)
So that story ended happily, and I'm now remembering to check the mail for lizards.
"Damn! I forgot to check the mail for lizards!"
Seriously. It happens.
Context: I had just brought in the mail a few days ago, and I had, in fact, forgotten to check for lizards. In other words, I forgot to make sure that none of the assorted small lizards that live on and around our home happened to have been hanging out in the mailbox at that time.
They do, you see, and if one of them is on the mail, it will freeze and cling tight until the mail is inside, and then leap off and skitter around inside the house, and if we aren't able to catch it and put it outside, it usually dies within a few days -- there's not enough food for them to find, and they usually can't find water. And this is sad.
In this case, it was a small anole, which ran around the house, evaded capture, hid under a bookcase, and was eventually found on the couch a couple of days later. We managed to catch it safely and evict it, and the same lizard was spotted a few days later, so it survived the harrowing experience. (It was a temporarily tailless lizard, which made the follow-up identification possible.)
So that story ended happily, and I'm now remembering to check the mail for lizards.