OH, MAMA, DON'T YOU JUST LUUUUUUUV HIM???

Went down for a walk by the lake yesterday with my friend Diana and her beautiful genius spawn, Sarah and Jordan.

The boys stopped to look at absolutely every little tiny possible thing that may or may not have just moved.

The girls held hands and chatted. And maybe taunted the boys now and again.

On the way back to the house, one pinky-sized newt, or salamander, or some such little squirmy crawly thing, who obviously did not get the emergency memo, forgot to scurry away (or is it scamper?), and got totally busted by the bug hunters.

Sarah stood, like an Irish pointer, perfectly still and focused on the prize. Saia did her very very best to sneak up on him, but she's much more of a tromper. And then...Santiago pounced. No, really. He literally pounced on the poor thing, snatched it right up. The whole moment was suspended in the quiet sounds of nature, a bird chirping up in the trees, the babbling brook...babbling, the wind softly rustling the leaves. And then you heard the music, the dun-da-RRRUN da-RRRUN-dun music from the Wizard of Oz, and it was all so eerily reminescent of the flying monkey scene when that first one with the creepy hat and the sparkly vest swoops down past the enchanted trees and snatches up Toto. And I know I could hear, although it may have been completely in my head, the teensy little terrified scream from their prey as he was gently, but firmly, shoved into Sarah's pocket for the remainder of the trip home because Jordan's were fully of berries. Or jelly. I forgot to check back in with Diana.

They named him Lewis, although our guests had suggested Lucifer, which I far preferred. But then today, Lewis became Lizzy, which then got shortened to just Liz. And as far as I know, there was no surgical procedure involved, but the monsters just decided he was no longer a boy. So...we are now the proud landlords of a transgendered lizard. We're very evolved out here, don'tcha know?

Update: Lewis/Liz finally decided it was time to go and fled her nest sometime between the hours of 7pm on 8/22 and 8am on 8/23. Reyna, the Chihuahua, may or may not have been licking her lips at the time.

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