A Lizard in the Fireplace

This was the biggest event at my house today.  I didn’t get a lot accomplished toward the moving project because going after the lizard took quite some time.

Somehow, cats always know everything that’s going on in the house, even if we think they’re fast asleep.

 My baby Koki

This morning, Koki alerted us to the little rascal because she was pawing on the glass trying to get at it.  She loves the lizards.  My husband looks at it and tells me its dead, tucked in behind the glass.  I didn’t think so because I was dusting in that room yesterday and I would have noticed it.

Lizard from our photos

 This little fella was about half-grown.  I wish I’d gotten a picture, but of course, there was no time for that.  The picture posted here I got from our photos of past years, but it was this type of lizard.  We have lots of them around here in the summer.

After some debate on how to accomplish the task, whether it’s a rescue operation or something for the burial ground out back, we decided to take the fireplace apart.  At first, I tried to reach it with a paper towel as my husband tilted the glass out.  This didn’t work, as it wasn’t far enough out for me to reach the lizard, even with my skinny arm.  So I got the yardstick and we discovered that it was very much alive – only playing possum.  It runs under the fake logs in there as soon as I touch it.

So we started dismantling the fireplace, setting the pieces aside on the tile floor.  Once we got the logs out the lizard scrambled through a small hole in the side that I assume is the way he got in.  Or he could still be in there, between the rocks that circle the fireplace and the outside wall.  I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.  For now, he’s still in there as far as I know.

Once he vanished, we set out to clean up all the parts that were dusty and that you can’t get to once the fireplace is intact.  After that, we had to figure out how to put everything back the way it came out.  This wasn’t as easy as taking it apart.  I think everything is that way, don’t you?

I wonder why this guy is even out of bed.  Why isn’t he hibernating, as the lizards do in the winter here?  It makes me think he’s hiding out in there this winter.  If that’s the case, I’m sure he’ll find his way out because he’s probably been in and out a dozen times already.

By the time this project was all done, it was too late to go back and tackle my sewing/craft room, which is what I had in mind when I got out of bed today.

Well there’s always tomorrow.