Bad Lizard!
Jun. 17th, 2012 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeWe have a number of lizards living around Fernley House. They all appear to be Western Sagebrush lizards. One of them is noticeably bigger than the others, and Lisa named it "George." We like having them around the property because they eat bugs and are not themselves dangerous.
Yesterday morning, when I went into the house, I saw George in the middle of the living room carpet. We may like these lizards, but we don't want them in the house. "Bad George!" I said. He ran into the cables behind the computer desk.
I didn't think I could catch him with my bare hands, but figured if I could shoo him into an open box, I might be able to carry him back outside. When I moved to set a box where I thought I might corner him, he took off running across the living room and up the facing of the fireplace rock work. I carried the box with me and stepped up to try and dislodge George into the box. Instead, George lept off the rocks, bounced off my chest, and scurried away again. Fortunately, this time he was more or less cornered near the front door. I opened the door and used a broom to shoo him outside.
Before trying to deal with George, I tried taking a picture of him, but the zoom on my camera phone isn't good enough, I didn't have my real camera with me, and I couldn't possibly get close enough to take a good photo without zoom as George is much too skitterish.
Lisa and I think George might have gotten in through the front door while we were unloading the van Friday evening and were coming and going. Silly lizard. There's more lizard food outside and under the house than inside.
Also on the wildlife theme, we startled up one of the resident rabbits when we came back from Reno last night. The rabbits here are much smaller than those that live around Quarry Lakes in Fremont. I reckon there's not nearly as much forage for them here as in the Bay Area.
Yesterday morning, when I went into the house, I saw George in the middle of the living room carpet. We may like these lizards, but we don't want them in the house. "Bad George!" I said. He ran into the cables behind the computer desk.
I didn't think I could catch him with my bare hands, but figured if I could shoo him into an open box, I might be able to carry him back outside. When I moved to set a box where I thought I might corner him, he took off running across the living room and up the facing of the fireplace rock work. I carried the box with me and stepped up to try and dislodge George into the box. Instead, George lept off the rocks, bounced off my chest, and scurried away again. Fortunately, this time he was more or less cornered near the front door. I opened the door and used a broom to shoo him outside.
Before trying to deal with George, I tried taking a picture of him, but the zoom on my camera phone isn't good enough, I didn't have my real camera with me, and I couldn't possibly get close enough to take a good photo without zoom as George is much too skitterish.
Lisa and I think George might have gotten in through the front door while we were unloading the van Friday evening and were coming and going. Silly lizard. There's more lizard food outside and under the house than inside.
Also on the wildlife theme, we startled up one of the resident rabbits when we came back from Reno last night. The rabbits here are much smaller than those that live around Quarry Lakes in Fremont. I reckon there's not nearly as much forage for them here as in the Bay Area.
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Date: 2012-06-18 03:08 pm (UTC)In the early 1980's, my parents turned what had been the back porch into a greenhouse. One of the features is a garden bed that was created by leaving a hole in the extended slab that makes up the floor.
A year or two later, we found a tortoise living in that garden. He stayed there for about a hear before disappearing again. Given the rate at which a tortoise can move, we were (are) pretty sure that he didn't follow one of us through the greenhouse doors. So we concluded that he must have tunneled his way under the foundation of the outer wall and found the greenhouse a comfortable place to live for a while, but eventually tunneled his way back out.
As I recall, my younger sister has also adopted a tortoise that found its way into her house - or at least her yard. (I wouldn't put it past her son to have brought it in and encouraged the adoption)