Lizard on the Run...

Written on 9/15/09: So it all begins last Saturday when Brad was on a hunting trip with the Boy Scout troop he volunteers with. They drove 4 1/2 hours away to teach the boy scouts how to hunt. They were on the look out for Dove. I told him that before he pulls the trigger, I want him to put himself in the place of that Daddy Dove when the Mommy Dove gets shot and dies, how much that Daddy Dove is going to miss his wife, and how bad the baby Doves will feel when their mommy is shot dead and how sad they will be the rest of their life. That and why in the world would you go out to shoot the very symbol of peace?! Well, turns out the weather wasn't so great, so thankfully no Dove were killed in this story. However, they caught a lizard and a baby rattlesnake. Brad brought both of them home. He kept the baby rattlesnake in a 7-11 Slurpee cup, put it in the freezer and let it die peacefully. I still felt bad going to sleep that night, wondering when the baby snake's spirit would separate from its body and meet its maker. I told Brad we were NOT keeping the lizard. Its about an 11 inch desert lizard, and it loves the heat. It was pouring down rain outside. I knew if we let it go in the storm it would die, and I couldn't let that happen, so I allowed him to keep it overnight... until the rain stopped. Well, the rain still hasn't stopped, and in the meantime he has purchased a glass cage, desert sand, and about 30 crickets to feed the guy. Actually, we found it he's a she. I'm still having a hard time considering that something like a reptile could be a girl, but considering Brad's odds at home with 4 to 1 (our dog is a girl), I'm not surprised. So anyway, the lizard is in its cage, happy as can be... Abbie is of course very excited to have a pet lizard and loves to see it move, so she likes to move the light we put in there, and the box, etc. to see it move. I told her this morning that if she touches the cave again, we're getting rid of it, even if its raining outside. I made sure she understood that. She even repeated the consequence to me this morning.... okay, so...

I had a meeting this afternoon from 3pm-8pm with work. We got a babysitter to watch the girls. I got a call around 6:00 asking where the vanilla was because she was making muddy buddies with the girls. I got a call at 6:30 which I gave to Brad who then went out of the meeting to talk to our babysitter. He came back with a huge smile on his face, and here's what happened...

Abbie went upstairs to play with the sand in the cage with the lizard. When she put her arm in the cage, the lizard ran up her arm and onto her back. Of course this freaked her out, to quote her she said, "The Lizard Tackled Me!" She ran downstairs screaming as the lizard was attached to the back of her shirt the whole way. As soon as she got downstairs to show the babysitter, the lizard LEAPED off her back, and scurried into the kitchen. They all went to go try to catch it, but it jumped into a little whole underneath our kitchen cupboards and there she remains.

Avri, our babysitter, said that Abbie was so upset, and was crying so hysterically, that she threw up. I couldn't stop laughing as I envisioned her running down the stairs with the lizard attached to her shirt back. Can you imagine?!