Lizard Love

We have loads of lizards around here this year.  They are everywhere and love this heat.  It never seems to get too hot for them.  Hanging out by the plants is usually how they spend their days.  I imagine there are plenty of bugs to catch there. 

 A lizard crawling across the patio

 

Watching them is fascinating.  They are really aggressive when it comes to hunting for food.  But I’ve noticed a lot of animals in the desert are that way.  I imagine food is in short supply sometimes so you have to make sure you get a meal if you spot one. 

Two lizards hanging out on our block wall

The lizards will actually chase competitors away from their hunting spot.  They can really run if they want to.  They have to stop and “pump” themselves up every-so-often, but then they take off at a fast run again.

 A lizard on the house

 

It’s not uncommon to go out and count ten of them around the house, on the house, or the wall that surrounds our property.  Hubby caught these two getting snuggly so I imagine we’ll have more lizards added to the group pretty soon. 

 You can hardly see them in the rocks in the second photo

There’s a lot of mating going on.  Raven wanted outside the door the other day when he spied two lizards chasing each other around in a courtship ritual.  I didn’t get a pic of that because I would have scared them off if I went out on the patio.

Here's one hanging out on the storage shed on the patio

Such is life in the desert.  It keeps the cats amused to watch all the creatures passing by, or hanging out under the patio shade.  I guess 110 in the shade is better than being out in the sun.  Besides what choice do these poor creatures have?  I feel sorry for them having to put up with the extreme conditions of desert living.

Sometimes my life gets crazy!

To start the day, I got a crazy hoax phone call from a man with am Asian accent warning me there was a bomb in the house and I needed to evacuate immediately.  Of course I thought what a bunch of malarkey this is.  “Good grief!” was all I said, thinking he was full of s***.

Mu husband called the number back and the guy on the other end denied making the phone call, so he called the FBI and they told him they get hundreds of calls like this a week.  The best thing to do is not engage the guy and act scared or they will call back and demand money in exchange for something.  The FBI agent said more than likely the Asian guy’s phone was hijacked by someone from overseas.  He did say this was only the second report of a bomb call they’ve received.  This is a first for us.  It sounded like the extortionist callers are usually telling the recipients of the calls that their grandchild is missing, etc., or things of that nature.

He chatted with my husband a bit longer and then agreed that being on the do not call list doesn’t work.

On anther note, we’ve been cleaning house for several days to get everything perfect for a real estate lady who had an appointment today to come and video tape the house for one of her clients.  The potential buyer saw the pics and loves the house.  Well at ten minutes after the time she was supposed to be here, we called her and she told us she had forgotten to cancel. Her father had a stroke and she was on her way to Vegas and would call to reschedule when she returns.

Now, we have no reason not to believe her, so for now we are taking her at her word.  Things like this do happen all the time, so we’ll see if she shows up in a couple of weeks.  She assured us her client loves the house.

This was disappointing because both of us could hardly move to get out of bed today to finish the job.  At that point, we just wanted to get it over with.

 This is the resident lizard

To top things off, if you follow my blog, you know we’ve had a lizard living in the fireplace.  This afternoon it’s front left foot got caught in between the frame and the glass.  I have no idea how this happened because he’s been coming and going for a year.  At first my husband didn’t believe me, but Raven and I knew he was trapped.  So once my husband saw him squirm and couldn’t get out, he knew it was true.

We had to take the fireplace apart to get the little guy out.  So I shut Raven up in our bedroom and we took the pieces off one by one.  My husband nudged him, but instead of going the other way, he jumped out into the room and ran at full tilt toward the couch.  I knew we had to catch him because the cats would have a field day chasing him all over and breaking things along the way. 

I grabbed a cotton dishtowel to throw over him, but he scooted out and underneath couch.  So we moved tables and then the couch and there he was, but ran back under the couch again.  This went on a few more times with us moving furniture and him eluding us. 

He headed toward the kitchen eventually and got under the cupboard at the kick plate.  My husband opened up the patio door nearby, but he ran under it and back into the family room.  Finally, realizing the door to freedom was open; he bolted out, stopping near the water dish to catch his breath.  Then he got on the wall of the house outside.  My husband could walk up to him.  Either he was worn out from trying to escape with his life, or he trusted us.  I guess time will tell if he shows back up in the fireplace again.

We got everything back in place just in time for my husband to pick a neighbor up and have his men’s night out at a friend’s house in the neighborhood.  They are barbequing and telling stories.  I know this will be a fun evening after the east few days of non-stop work and these guys haven’t gotten together this year because everyone’s been out of town and not all here at the same time.

 Unwinding before dinner

I was going to the neighbors for a girl’s night, but she just got home from a trip and has to clean house, so we’re doing our thing tomorrow.  I have the whole house to myself tonight for a couple of hours.  I guess I’ll kick back, enjoy this peace and quiet, and read or maybe get some writing done.

I’m in love with a devil

My little boy is a very small devil, but he’s so loving I can’t say no to him.  Look what he’s done to the cat tree?

 It's down to bare wood at the corners - bad boy!

I always let the cats freely roam the house and always have let them do what they like to their furniture (the cat tree).  They leave my furniture alone and are good about that.  The problem with this attitude is that we humans have to repair the damage to the cat’s furniture so it looks halfway decent in the house.  This is done around here about once a year (if I’m lucky), but is especially important now that the house is for sale.  Not everyone you meet is an animal lover and understanding about them.

Time flies so fast that it seems like repairing the cat tree is always on the calendar.  I’ve never had a cat this destructive, or this loving (to say something in his favor).  I guess his good naturedness wins out and he gets away with a lot.

 This bad little fur ball wore himself out

He was chewing on my arm constantly, making a mincemeat package out of it, so I decided to shop the infant’s department in Walmart.  I have never had any kids of my own, but the idea struck me that he needed a teething ring.  I bought one of these with varying sides for him to bite on (from soft to firm) and that seems to have solved the problem (knock on wood).  My arm is finally healing after months of his bites.

 Koki looking innocent in the dining room.  Unfortunately, I can't get a pic of her attacking me.

However, Koki is a very jealous cat and decided to attack me yesterday for no reason.  I figured she was taking out her fury because I was paying too much attention to the boy.  I give all three cats attention, but you never know what goes through a cats head at any given time.  Now I have a new wound, but I clipped all their nails after that.

On a better note, another lizard showed up to take up residence behind the shudder on the front of the house.  Koki is very pleased about that.  She thinks her friend is back.  I guess when you’re an inside cat, what else do you have to look forward to each day?  I hope this one interacts with her as the last one did.

The real estate people who came over last week loved the house and gave us some ideas on price, etc.  We busted our butts cleaning around here and most of it probably needlessly.  We need to get an appraiser in here next.  This is still daunting since we have no idea where we’re moving yet.

From the desert, it’s a bit cooler.  Thank goodness for that.  I watched fireworks outside from my patio until about 11 PM.  It was a nice 85 with a soft breeze.  I didn’t want to come in.  That was heaven compared to the 105 we’ve had recently.

Work still goes on with the new house two lots down from us and in the garage.  I’ll post pics of the house next time, but not the garage, which is a disaster.  The front door on the new construction arrived and it’s gorgeous.

Triple digits in the desert

Hot, Hot, Hot is the only way to describe July and August where I live.  The birds are panting and looking for any shade that they can find to get a brief respite from the intense heat.  Today it was 106 here, but a whopping two-degree difference below the forecast high.  We’re in for it all week, those days when you have no energy to do anything except sit under a fan.

There’s a lot going on here at the moment, wildlife wise, people wise and work wise, so I’m going to do a few short posts.

Today I downloaded my camera card.  This is the first time I’ve had it full since I got it several years ago.  I guess I must be taking too many pictures, or maybe I need a bigger card.

About a week ago, Koki’s outdoor friend, a lizard that lived behind the shutter on the front of the house, was caught and eaten by a passing roadrunner.  This broke Koki’s heart as she witnessed the whole event, which shows how cruel life is in the desert for the animals.  But as we all know, it’s all about survival and the smaller animals are prey for the larger ones.  I caught this whole episode with my camera and Koki sat glued to the window, her eyes large and focused on the scene.

Let me say Koki and the lizard played peek-a-boo a lot with it engaging her from its home behind the shutter, darting in and out, as she pawed at window.

As I said before, it’s like watching National Geographic around here.  I’d never seen this much action before involving a roadrunner catching its prey.  They have very sharp teeth and are definitely not afraid of us, as we’ve chased them off many times, only to have them stand up to us and not actually leave until we’re within a foot or two.  Of course, they’re right back in a minute or two after disappearing behind the wall for a short while.

As if catching the victim by the throat wasn’t enough, it went on to beat the lizard to death on the concrete wall to the side of the house.  Once it was satisfied, it shook it violently from side to side before taking off to the vacant lot next door to eat its prize.

Koki

 Poor Koki’s been sitting at the window looking for her friend.

The Wicked Wind

On Saturday night, we had wind here that blew at 67 MPH (the radio reported this the next day) for ten hours straight.  Naturally, we were out there trying to tie up trees, etc.  This always seems to happen.  I’m just thankful it wasn’t 30 degrees, which is usually the temp when we’re out tying up trees.  However, it was chilly.  I came in and took some extra vitamin c.

 Dark skies before the storm

You could almost see the windows moving in and out as blasts of wind hit them while roaring around the house.  I was wondering if they would hold up and not cave in.

We went out later and moved all the patio chairs close to the house.  They are heavy metal ones that have blown over before.

The next day we looked out to see the damage.

Another tree bites the dust

 

 The port-o-potty turned over

We only had one tree down, but it was a big one so now we need to replace three trees in the front yard.  This is quite pricey, so we may not replace the one that just broke.  The nursery here has been getting trees in because of the hard winter we had.  The problem is they plant them into big boxes immediately so they can charge more.  What a racket.

There were trees down all over our little town along with several street signs and two outhouses sitting at construction sites.

The wind also blew out the pilot light on the hot water heater so we were without hot water on Sunday morning.  Tell me how it can get past two doors to do that.  The water heater is in a room inside the garage.

Surprisingly the power never went out.  That’s a real shocker since it’s notorious for going out around here all the time.

Vacant lot ready for building - notice the port-o-potty is at the right

On another note, work has started on the vacant lot two doors down from us.  The men were there yesterday to mark out the lot for footings.

 Tootie

Tootie’s eye is continuing to heal.  We took her to the vet last Wed and were able to cut her meds down to twice a day.  I’m glad she’s such a little trooper.  We would never have been able to endure all that we’ve been through with this eye had it been a couple of the cats we’ve had in the past.  They were little scrappers and wouldn’t put up with being doctored that much, or having the e-collar around their neck.  I’m sure we’d have wounds all over us by now.

 Our resident lizard

The lizard is still making itself at home in the fireplace.  I don’t blame it for wanting to stay in there on Sat night.  We aren’t using the fireplace right now anyway and its entertainment for the cats.

 New side-by-side fridge

The new fridge was delivered last Thurs.  It seems smaller, but I'm just used to the French doors.  At least this works and that's the important thing, right?

Don’t tell me it’s another repair bill?

Free clipart

Daily life brings a lot of joy, but it also hands you crap occasionally.  Today was one of those days.  This morning we discovered the fridge had quit.  Lucky for us, we have another fridge in the garage.  We called a repairman and then moved everything to the other fridge and freezer.

The technician called us back and said he couldn’t come until Monday because he was too busy.  What?  Monday!  This will never do and was quickly becoming a frustrating situation.  He gave us the name of another repairman he knew, so we called him.

As it turned out the second guy never showed up, claiming he tried to call us, but our phone never rang.  We were here all day waiting for him too, so Tootie missed her vet appointment to get her eye checked today.  This is a whole other story about what has been going on here for the last month or so.  I’ll fill you in on the next post.

We are giving the repairman the benefit of a doubt, thinking maybe he wrote down the wrong number, but this is quite typical behavior for where I live.  We’ve had to wait on people all day only to have them not show up or bother to call us.  I won’t miss this when we move.

Now Tootie won’t make her vet appointment tomorrow either because we’ll be waiting for this man again.  We have no time as to when he’ll be here.  I probably won’t take her in now until next week.  I think her eye is on the mend anyway.  It would just be nice to have the vet confirm it.

I hope that this will be a simple fix and we won’t need a new fridge.

May Pole

On another note, today is my mother’s birthday, Mayday.  Everyone’s going out for Mexican food.  That’s no surprise.  Mexican is the one thing they can all agree on to eat.  I wish I were there too, but maybe next year.  I hope one of my sisters will take pictures to send to me, and to my little sister in New York.

 My mother

Raven’s now six months old and getting to be quite a handsome boy.  We had company today, our Aussie friends, and he was all over them, purring and playing and being a social butterfly.  This is my handsome little man.

 Raven - six-months-old

The resident lizard is still making herself at home in the fireplace.  She must have been out on the town last night because she wasn’t in there.  Hee-hee.  I don’t know if she had a hot date or not.  I determined this was a female lizard because she doesn’t have the colorful underbelly the males do.  The cats enjoy watching her through the screen.

 Lizard in the fireplace

 Lizard in the fireplace

It’s windy here in the desert again today.  This makes day number three of wind gusts up to 40 mph.  Big earth movers are stirring up the dust preparing the ground for the new house going in two lots down from us.  I kept the windows closed, which I hate to do, being there are so few days in the year we can open them.  The building crew is keeping long hours over there having run into the underground stream we told them was there.  They’ve had to change their plans so the house doesn’t start to sink and crack later.  A guy has owned that lot for twenty years and finally decided to move down here and build a house on it.  I guess we’ll hear the noise from all the construction soon.  The cats love all the action that’s taking place.

 A to Z survivor's badge

Congrats to all who entered and finished the A to Z challenge this year.  It was fun.  I enjoyed hopping over to read others blogs.  Thank you to the ones who read my posts and to my new followers.

Until next time...

The Story of a Lizard

Lizard - Sunni's Photo's



We have many lizards here in the desert. I’m not sure what kind this is, but they are plentiful around my house. The colors range from a light brownish-red to a dark brown color. Most of them have black bands around their neck. I got on Google, but  I’m still not able to decipher which kind of lizard this is. My best guess is a Great Basin Fence Lizard.

Lizard's Back - Sunni's Photo's

My husband was mowing the grass a few days ago and he almost ran over this guy. He stopped short and the lizard was by the wheel of the mower. Stunned, he didn’t move and my husband was able to touch him and said his skin was very rough. In about a minute or two, the lizard took off as fast as his legs would carry him. However, he didn’t go far and got under the honeysuckle bush we have on the fence. A lizard liked to stay around there, so I’m thinking this was this one.

Lizard's Belly - Sunni's Photos

Sadly, the next morning he was still there and dead, so I went out and buried him under this bush. I looked at him closely then and he was gorgeous with beautiful fluorescent colors on his belly that we humans would never see. I took pictures to share with all of you. The male lizard is the more colorful one, which seems to be the way it is with all animals and birds. We are thinking he died of old age since most lizards this size live 3-4 years, if that. Or perhaps he had a heart attack, scared to death by the motor of the lawn mower and his narrow escape. I don’t know if lizards have heart attacks.