This morning has been exciting. Last night while Ladybug and I were checking out the emerging plants and flowers, she decided that she wanted to check out the old birdhouse that we put some bird seed in to see if there were any birds in there. So, we go over and I open the side and quickly close it because instead of seeing a bunch of bird seed or even a bird I saw a lizard! I more startled than anything. Ladybug was asking me what I saw. I told her a lizard but I wasn’t sure if it was alive. She wanted to see. I lifted her up and opened the side again and it still hadn’t moved. In fact it looked like it’s little front hand (paw, foot??) had been smooshed in the “door” that I was using to look inside. I put Ladybug down and got a stick (No I am not about to stick my hand inside the birdhouse/feeder and mess with the lizard with my bare hands, even if they don’t bite … they don’t bite, do they?) I pushed him around a bit with the stick but it didn’t look like he was breathing or alive at all. I told Ladybug that maybe a bird had almost eaten him and he got away but didn’t make it (sadly). She decided that she needed to show her Daddy this (who wasn’t home) and that the lizard needed to come home and “live with her” and if I saw another dead lizard to tell her because she would put it in the birdhouse/feeder with the other one. (ok I know that’s like three completely different things that she wants to do with it but she’s 4 .. what do you expect?)Anyway, hubby came home last night around 8:30. Ladybug was supposed to have been asleep at 7 but was still WIDE awake. She excitedly told him that they needed to go outside right then and look at the dead lizard. He was able to convince her that it was dark and cold and after Ladybug checked with me (for permission because what I say goes I guess) she was ok with that, but told him to wake her up in the morning so they could check it out together. He told her he was leaving for work early and wouldn’t be able to wake her. She didn’t go to sleep until about 9ish and got up about 10:40 because she had wet the bed. (The fun never stops). I changed her stuff, threw the rest in the washer and went back to bed. This morning on my way out to drive Ladybug and her oldest sister Pink (again … due to the color hair she sported for a while… now it’s dark brown and turquoise blue but I digress) off at school she wanted to stop and look in to see if the lizard was in there. Lucky for me it was too dark to see anything. She was excited to check it out after school.
When I got home I was emailing back and forth with my mom and had told her about the dead lizard and after she asked me “You are NOT letting her keep a dead lizard – are you?” I told her “You think I am crazy? Heck no I am not letting her take the lizard. I am going to "let the lizard go" and she can think that it was just sleeping.”
So after I finished eating I bravely went back outside to check the birdhouse/feeder. I donned on a garden glove (why couldn’t I have gotten both?) and opened it up. To find the lizard back where he was the night before, BEFORE I moved him with my stick. So either
1. A bird had come in and played with him while we were inside or
2. He wasn’t dead, was very much alive and was trying to get out of the cold.
So I grabbed my trusty stick again and tried to encourage him to come out of the birdhouse/feeder and he clung for dear life to the side of the birdhouse. Not sure what I wanted to do, I pushed him back inside and I decided to go inside to think it over.
Ladybug has a cat. We rescued her from the pound almost 2 years ago now. She LOVES this cat and this cat is perfect for her. I couldn’t have found/picked a better feline companion for my overly active little girl. Anyway, this cat has a tendency of being a HUGE pain in the butt. She will lie down in the middle of the hall or walkway and not move (like other more scared cats might) if she sees someone coming. For someone who is legally blind without corrective vision and who walks around without said corrective vision at night… this can be troublesome. I figure if I fall… well it probably won’t end up well for the cat, to put it mildly. She’s not fat or lazy just doesn’t seem to know or care when she should move out of the way. Most of the other people in this house barely put up with her because of this. I, however, will put up with it and more because she’s the cat that will let Ladybug pick her up, hold her, carry/drag her around in a laundry basket, put into “time-out” in the bathroom or tub (depending on Ladybug’s mood I guess), and an assortment of other things I am sure with little to no protest. In fact the other day I was getting ready for a shower and saw Ladybug holding her cat and opening up her mouth (which the cat gladly did) in order to shove a cat treat down her throat. That was a close one.
Anyway, this morning after the whole lizard thing I realized that I hadn’t heard, seen, tripped on the cat. In fact I can’t remember when was the last time I saw the cat. We have four cats. Three black cats and one Siamese mix. Ladybug’s cat is the Siamese Mix. So trust me, in my house it’s not hard to see her. Now the other three… that’s another story. I remember Ladybug telling me last night or yesterday morning sometime that she woke up because there was a cat meowing and scratching on her door (which never happens) but I didn’t think anything of it and just went into her room and turned up her Winnie the Pooh CD so she could get back to sleep. If this is when she was “lost” it was yesterday morning and after a little while it was time to get ready for school anyway so we got dressed and went on with our day. (What a great pet owner and Mom huh?)
So I began looking for her, calling out her name, looking everywhere I could think of, inside, outside (even though she’s an indoor cat), in the older girls room (with a flashlight to check under the beds), in the garage, outside all around the yard (we live on some property AND it’s raining… my shoes and socks are soaked), inside the old kennel that the owner of our property uses as storage (yuck spider webs), text messaged my neighbors so they could keep a look out, back inside, even The Boy’s room (which is above and beyond in my personal opinion) I was worried beyond belief thinking of how upset Ladybug would be if I couldn’t find her before it’s time to pick her up from school… then I thought, “Hm, I wonder if she MIGHT be in Ladybug’s closed closet?!?!” I opened up the door and look down to see these two very bright blue eyes staring up at me before running off down the hall. Now to my credit, she didn’t run for the litter box, food or water. So maybe she wasn’t in there for the better part of two days. I text messaged everyone telling them that I found her, but feel very dumb all the same.
My personal opinion… what Ladybug doesn’t know, can’t hurt her.
Now, what do I do about the poor hibernating lizard in the birdhouse/feeder?
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