The Trash Can Kingdom

Locally, we have small green lizards with the official name of Anole (look it up. I didn't invent the name). They're rarely over 6 inches long, even with the tail, and are interesting to watch. Oddly enough, with so many of them, you'd think more people would have them as pets. In my life, I can't think of anyone keeping them as pets, although I do know some people that used to tie them to their lapel with a string. It was more of a day job type thing, though. They would get tired of them and let them go. After all, they're a little small for the organ grinding gig.

Years ago, my mother had one that spent the winter around her desk. It would sit at the end and watch her as she worked. She, feeling responsible, didn't catch it and throw it out in the harsh elements. She fed it turtle food; even would roll up little balls of hamburger, which it would eat. I don't know what happened to it, and never asked. I'm assuming she let it loose when spring came. That sounds better than rolling over it while it scampered out of the way of her chair.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. There is a lizard that lives at my mother's house by her trash can. Call it his kingdom. He guards it from other lizards. I've seen him challenge would-be squatters by running his red flag from his neck. (I didn't mention this before. It's under their neck and the males run it out to threaten, or find a mate....whichever happens to be the occassion.)

Food is no problem in this lizard kingdom. Flies abound and he eats at leasure. He'll sit there motionless, until a fly makes a mistake and ventures to close. With lightning reflexes, he'll swallow the fly. If you blink, you'll miss the show.

One day, as I was watching him, he started running the flag out of his neck and looking around. I looked for his adversary, but there was none to be found. In fact, there wasn't another lizard. I'm wondering if he was just showing off. Maybe he was hoping to find a mate. Maybe a potential mate was hiding better than my keen astigmatic eyes could see. I dunno. In a way, he seemed a little lonely. Life's like that. When you're the king, you're bound to get lonely.