My male European wall lizard disappeared for six months.
I really should have posted this yesterday. I find myself preoccupied, lately.
We don’t have a comment contest going just now, but we do have “Name a Character.” It’s gotten off to a slow start: I wonder if I phrased it too vaguely. Betcha I did.
Well, Patty and I have to go grocery-shopping, so enjoy the lizard story. If you’ve never had pet lizards, you’ve missed something.
I’ve had a lot of pet lizards. Here’s a monitor lizard who has the run of the house (“Oh, boy, dog-food!”). My iguana slept in his cage and did his, er, business there, but the rest of the time he was on the loose. He was good at making friends with dogs and cats. I’m telling you–there’s more to lizard-minds and hearts than you might think. So much more!
I had three slowworms once; I don’t think you can get them anymore. They were about the nicest lizards you could ever meet. They had these bright little faces, grew to be really tame in next to no time, and seemed very quick to learn. Honest, they’re not a bit like snakes.
My slowworms died because of stuff in the environment. I fed them worms and slugs and bugs that I caught outside, never suspecting the ground was tainted with assorted pesticides from years back. Their appetite for pests is why they’re so welcome in English gardens.
Yes, I miss my good little slowworms. If it seems strange to talk about lizards having personality–well, no one who really knows lizards would think that.
It’s easy to understand why anyone would love a cat, a dog, or a bunny. They’re cuddly, they can love us back, they can be trained to perform useful work, and can even play with us.
But I love lizards and turtles, too. I’ve had many different kinds as pets. You can’t teach them to do jobs, I’ve never known a lizard to play, it’s hard to be cuddly when you don’t have any fur, and as for loving us back–well, I’ve had a few lizards and turtles who did a pretty good imitation of it, and maybe it wasn’t an imitation after all.
Dogs and cats, rats and bunnies, goats and horses–they’re mammals, like we are. That means we have a lot in common. We can get into each other’s heads, as it were. You can understand what your cat wants, even though she can’t tell you in words. Your dog can understand what you want, etc.
But what about a lizard or a turtle? (Those of you who are wondering why I’ve left out snakes–well, I’ve had no experience with snakes.) These are very, very different from mammals. No parental care: the eggs hatch and off they go.
But I’m here to tell you that you can win the trust of a lizard or a turtle. They will lose their fear of you, certainly seem to enjoy it when you handle them; and if they’re big and smart enough to be allowed the run of the house, they’ll often seek you out, and seem to be happy in your company. And if treated kindly and gently, they can learn to do things that they’d never ordinarily even think of doing! You should have seen my iguana cuddled up with his doggy and catty friends. Unthinkable, really. But he’d been around long enough, and thoroughly hand-raised from the time he was a tiny little green thing, to be able to adapt to many unusual situations.
To me a bond with a reptile feels special because I know how different they are, I know what a great gaping space a turtle and I have to bridge before the turtle wants me to tickle the top of his head and the underside of his neck. A turtle in the wild who allowed anything like that would have to be totally crazy. To have the little slowworms (legless lizards: charming little souls) scooting over to me to get fed and petted–well, really, that made me feel like something very fine was happening to them and me. It felt like a glimpse into God’s restoration of Creation.
When I had an art class to teach, I used to take my iguana to school because the kids liked to draw him, and feed him wild strawberries. He behaved himself all day, with perfect manners. He had a bond of trust with me that he extended to most other humans. He and Patty hit it off from the git-go. He and Patty’s dog were instant friends.
Reptiles are capable of much more than we expect from them; and to have had a role in bringing it out–well, what can I say? I love it when that happens!