Ok. This all came about when we found the wild, Western Skink, Lizzie. The adorable, fluffy, purry cats had chewed on it and played with it, as cats do, and when I found it, it had no tail and was severly traumatized. I’m a mammal person. I have no idea how to care for reptiles. I quickly “Googled” lizards and then narrowed it down and found that we had on our hands a Western Skink – native to northwestern United States. I thought I’d read that they like worms. Well, Lizzie wouldn’t eat the worms I put in the plastic container with her and her water. I made a terrarrium for her. I put the worms in the soil too, as well as baby spider plants, a shamrock rhyzome, a polka dot plant, and another plant that had been a gift. I was quite busy, and I thought that cold-blooded animals didn’t eat often. So, the morning I went to get the crickets – about three days later, I came back with pinhead (baby) crickets, and Lizzie wouldn’t move and was stiff when I picked “her” up. Her body now rests in my flower planter on the back patio.
There were tears at our house – myself included for not getting crickets sooner. My husband, in distress, said, “Can’t you go get another one for $5.00?” I, already knowing how pet stores price pets, said, “$5.00?! Are you kidding?” Then I went to two pet stores and found something close to Lizzie, an Orange-Throated Pigmy Skink ($8.99) - our new “Lizzie”. She was a cute, little thing, and I could hardly feel her at all, when I picked her up. She had plenty of pinhead Crickets to eat. And, I’m happy to say “she” is still with us! It is quite terrified of me, obviously, not understanding my benevolent nature. So, instead of a “pet,” she’s more of an “observe”.
They did it again! Out on the stairs in the garage was another, helpless lizard tonight! I “Googled” it. I think it’s a Western Fence Lizard. I donned rubber gloves – S.T.A.T., and scooped it up, depositing it into Lizzie’s terrarrium. It was cold and helpless – poor, little thing. It’s name is “Rocky”. It seems to like Lizzie’s hang out very much. “He” got all warm under the heat lamp and next to the heating pad and seems to be doing fine.
As I sit here listined to the soft chirping of the adult crickets in a different terrarrium – I’m breeding them, so their babies can be lizard food (the adults have amnesty), I’m quite sure that our cats, Jonesie and Kitty are purrrrrrrrrrrrfectly pleased with themselves from all the excitement caused by their gifts to us. I assume that as long as we have cats, we’ll have lizards. As I sit here in the still of the night typing, I’m very much liking the sweet song of crickets in my kitchen.
