two tales of two tails...

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher." ` William Wordsworth

Two rather funny run-ins I had with lizards (Green Anoles to be accurate - a very common type of lizard here in NC) recently:

Like many days we've had recently, two weeks ago we woke up to a beautiful sunny sky and silky, warm temps, so the bf and I were taking the tandem bike out for a little cruise to get breakfast.  The bikes and all their paraphernalia have been in the shed since December, so we had to pump up the tires, check the chain, etc.  Finally, we put on our helmets and started out.  Before we had passed two houses I noticed I kept getting a long chunk of hair falling into my eyes.  Well, I have very short hair, so that seemed odd.  My hair isn't long enough to get in my eyes.  The good thing about a tandem is that I don't have to steer (or anything else, if I don't want to - shhhh! don't tell him!), so as we're going along, I took my helmet off to see what was up with my hair.  It wasn't hair falling in my eyes...it was the tail of a lizard who probably spent the winter hanging out in my helmet!  Before I realized it was a harmless little Anole lizard, I screamed and dropped my helmet.  That got the neighbor's, who were out weeding in their font yard, attention.  And the bf's.  I'm not the screaming type, really.  Poor little lizard took off.  He was okay, Janet, I didn't hurt him!


Then, a few days later, I got up one morning, went into the bathroom and turned on the light.  As I was splashing water on my face I noticed something weird about the "sinkhole".  Now, we have an old house with an old bathroom sink that has no stopper, just a hole in the bottom. So, without my glasses on, I tried to figure out what was in the hole.  It was the face of another little Anole! I didn't scream this time.  I turned off the light and left the bathroom.  I made the bf get up and go in with me the next time, a few minutes later and the little guy had climbed out and was on the counter, so we could catch him and release him into the wilds of the backyard.

Kind of a cute little booger, isn't he? Apparently they have very strong jaws and will clamp on to things - like hair.  When my children were little they would catch these guys and hang them from their ears like earrings.  Only for a minute, then they would try to help the lizard "find their family".