Leapin' lizard
Wherever you go in Florida
They eat ants and crickets and can be kept as pets… but why bother? They’re just as much fun peering at you through your kitchen window or hanging from a fern on the porch. Perhaps because of the housing boom, a rather lot of the little beasts are suicidal, running directly under your feet as you pass. Hopping from one foot to the other to avoid them does no good. They have an uncanny knack for finding the Shoe Of Doom. Suicide by bicycle is also a trend.
They eat ants and crickets and can be kept as pets… but why bother? They’re just as much fun peering at you through your kitchen window or hanging from a fern on the porch. Perhaps because of the housing boom, a rather lot of the little beasts are suicidal, running directly under your feet as you pass. Hopping from one foot to the other to avoid them does no good. They have an uncanny knack for finding the Shoe Of Doom. Suicide by bicycle is also a trend.
One day, halfway to the beach on my motorcycle, I looked down and saw one perched on the handlebar, face to the wind, like a dog in a pickup, master of all it surveyed. I was enjoying its company, as we sped along, as much as it enjoyed the ride, an old hand it seemed, as smug as a toad. But as we neared the beach it grew restive and appeared to be casting about for an opportunity to disembark. Perhaps it smelled the sea, or the seagulls. Of course it picked the most impetuous moment, when I was rounding a sharp curve in the road, to jump off. Whether it survived or not I have no idea. We had just passed a cluster of coconut palms.
I love the mental picture you painted of the anole on the handlebar,wind whipping through it's(imaginary)hair,probably trying to telepathically tell you where it wanted to be let off lol.
ReplyDeleteWe get skinks(drop tail lizard type) here at times,but they're not too friendly,due to the winged wildlife pouncing on even toy rubber lizards as lunch ;)
^_^ I love this! And I can just picture the little guy on the motorbike. What a hoot!
ReplyDeleteWe had Western Fence lizards everywhere in CA. Here's a geeky fact about those critters: their blood neutralizes Lyme Disease. If a Lyme-ridden tick sucks the blood of a Western Fence Lizard, it will no longer transmit Lyme disease. Cool, huh?
When I was a kid, we had funny little tan geckos running all up and down the walls. Big ones (well, not *real* big) and baby ones all over the place. One time I picked one up and he did this frantic dance in my hand and fell over dead. At least he looked dead. I hope he was just playing possum. They were sorta like pets, but there were so many that we just called them all Lizzie. I remember wondering if it wasn't maybe slightly insulting to The Queen. ^_^
I've not seen an anole in real life, but they remind me of the lizards that we have out in the West. My friends and I used to go lizard hunting all the time in local sand pits. We'd put them in one-gallon ice cream buckets, filled with sand and with breathing holes. When we'd get home the lizards would go into a bunch of old aquariums that we stored at a friend's house. It was pretty fun. We'd let them go after we got bored.
ReplyDeleteThese lizards sound absolutely adorable! Wow! Having one perched on your handlebar is quite a treat. I call those Zen moments, where nature, the Tao, whatever, shares a rare moment of poetic beauty with us.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree about keeping them as pets. About as silly as bringing a tree inside the house from outside. Oh wait -- we do that for Christmas don't we? :)
Joe,
ReplyDeleteMichigan is FULL of ano... Oh, wait, anoles, like lizards... Never mind. I thought you said something else.
bugs - "winged wildlife", yes, I think that's what makes them skittish. Was it trying to communicate telepathically? Wouldn't be surprised - one reptilian brain to another.
ReplyDeletecandace - I'm not surprised that the blood of lizards has been found to have extraordinary properties. That's why I take folklore seriously. Not to be too hard on you, kid, but that little dance was the (alas, fatal) Gavotte To The Two-Legged Beast. It's an act of reverence. I wouldn't worry about the queen. According to tradition, all the lizards in England receive her name upon entering the tutelage.
grunt - They are fun, and don't mind a spell of captivity. Quite witty, too, when given a drop of port. Providing, of course, you enjoy multi-level puns and bawdy limericks.
dan - you're on it, yes, a zen moment. I felt oddly privileged. As if something wary but pure had alighted on my world, on my motorcycle no less, and felt however momentarily at ease.
Mike, Florida, like Michigan, abounds in a variety of life forms, including the endemic ones found everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMike's right, some of the drivers here can be real anoles. ^_^ But I think it's lke that everywhere. Actually, they're usually really polite. They just do really stupid things sometimes. In WI in CA they were not so willing to let you into traffic, so I guess they're bigger anoles. Skinks, maybe. ^_^
ReplyDeleteAgggh! Poor Lizzie. :-P
How wonderful the picture you had painted in my brain. I love this story. LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteWe have tons of little lizards in the Central Valley (CA). Not sure what they're called. Could be western fence lizards for all I know. They get in the house sometimes. In the summer they're very fast and hard to catch, but in the winter they barely move. Then there was the snake I caught in our house a few weeks back. That was neat.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, cool story. :)
sarah - you're painting my mind too; your posts are fun and your photos are superb.
ReplyDeletediesel - down here in the winter the humans scramble around and in the summer we hardly move.
Joe - LOL! True, I used to live there.
ReplyDeleteHe is now happily partnered in the coconut palms running a Harley Davidson shop and tattoo parlor... he has a condo in the palms and vacations down in the scrub... pays his taxes and is an upstanding member of the community...
ReplyDeletespider - and to think I played a small role in delivering him to that destination... It's A Wonderful Life!
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that? What a ride you two took. Sharp curve taken slow, I hope. Just please don't get dead on your donorcycle, Joe.
ReplyDeleteI won't.
ReplyDelete