Of Cockroaches and Lizards

I don’t want you all to think it’s all sunshine and loveliness here in Silver City. But most mornings when I wake up and walk outside, I feel like I’ve taken some amazing drug that makes the air sweeter and the colors more brilliant and the sky more vast and blue. I hope it keeps on.

But this place has its cockroaches and lizards – literally. The cockroaches are very large, Kafka-esque in stature. I tried to fool myself into thinking they were just beetles. But they are in fact, cockroaches. I have refrained from taking pics of them, because they are just not that photogenic. There’s a phrase used in football when you are full-on tackled and thrown down on your back with your legs and arms flailing about. It’s called ‘getting cockroached.’ And when I see a big-ass cockroach on it’s back, helpless and thrashing about because it can’t turn over and scuttle away, I think the phrase is incredibly accurate. It actually makes me smile. Unfortunately for me, my cat Pheenie, has absolutely no desire to kill and eat these cockroaches...

However Pheenie loves her some lizards! In a matter of minutes a few days ago, she caught and brought two lizards, one after the other, into the living room to play with (with the ultimate intent to kill and eat, of course…).  The lizards looked like this:

Artist's concept of lizard...

I am innocent!

After she had exhausted lizard #1, I put on work gloves and picked it up and the little sucker bit me. It clung tenaciously to the index finger of my work glove and I had to practically bang it about to get it to let go and scurry off into the bushes. Minutes later, Pheenie brought in lizard #2. I grabbed my work gloves again, and caught this one higher up on the torso so it couldn’t quite swing its head around and bite. My technique is improving. Pheenie was pissed. But she got over it soon enough with some kitty treats. Packaged kitty treats.

And here’s another picture of a lizard. Look closely. This is what a lizard looks like after it gets trapped in your dryer with a load of laundry dried on the high heat setting. The little sucker had closed its jaws tight on a nice clean pair of my underwear and died. I tossed the lizard. I re-washed my underwear.

I am sure there are other creepy crawlie things I will encounter. But we will figure that out as we go.

Dried Lizard...