The Saga of Alfred

 About two weeks ago, I found Princess Fair-weather Daintypaws hunting something in my office.  I moved some stuff aside and found a bead on the floor.  I praised her for finding the bead and put it up on my workbench, but she continued in hunting mode, so I figured there was something else under there.  I moved more stuff aside and found what I thought was a large worm flopping around on the floor, so I scooped it up, carried it outside and dumped it in one of the garden beds.  It flipped itself over and I saw the scale pattern on it and realized it wasn't a worm, but the tail of a Southern Alligator Lizard.  

Since those lizards shed their tails as a defense mechanism, that meant the lizard itself was still in my office.... with Princess.  So I hustled back inside, tossed her out of the office, shut the door and started hunting for the lizard.  I found him, but he scurried away before I could catch him.  I moved more stuff, but he got away again.  Since then I've kept the door to my office shut in the hopes that the lizard would take the opportunity to escape into the furnace room so Princess wouldn't kill him.  

These lizards are valuable bug hunters.  At the Art Glass Guild studio in Spanish Village in September, I watched another Alligator Lizard hunting a swarm of termites.  As each flying termite fluttered to the floor, that lizard, whom I named Albert, would pop out of hiding, gobble up the termite, and dash back into hiding until the next termite landed.  So I was hoping Alfred would do the same thing under my house.  

Albert About to Nab a Termite

I hadn't seen anything of this lizard since then, but this afternoon I found Princess in hunting mode again, this time under the bookshelves in the family room, so I picked her up, put her in my office and shut the door.  I couldn't find the lizard, so I reopened the door, and found Princess sitting there with the lizard curled up on the floor in front of her.  I shoved her into the bathroom, shut the door and looked for a container to put the lizard's body in, but when I turned around, he was gone.  Hoping he hadn't run under the bathroom door, I opened it, and sure enough, she was hunting again in the corner of the bathroom.  

I got her out and finally managed to trap the lizard in the container.

Alfred in the Container

He didn't appear to be wounded, so I carried him waaaayyyy out behind the fence and released him into the shrubbery.

Alfred Among the Shrubs

Run free, Alfred, and DON'T COME BACK INTO THE HOUSE!

Alligator Lizard

Since it's April Fool day today, finding the Southern Alligator Lizard in the garage last Sunday reminded me of a non-prank that I was NOT responsible for years ago.

My dad had given us a sculpture he had done of a nest of snakes; the burl on the wood he used for the carving had figuring that suggested snake skin to him.  I've always liked that carving, but Cindy....not so much.  

Dad's Sculpture--Snakes

So one day, while I was at work, she went to dust the sculpture and saw what she thought was a rubber snake lying on top of the snake carving.  "Very funny", she thought, "what a joke, Kay," until the "rubber snake" moved its head.  Then she had to jump into gear and try to get the very real Alligator Lizard out of the house before the cats discovered it.

A great website for identifying California reptiles is California Herps.com.

Real Lizard

Wooden Snakes

Jurassic Garage

Cindy was transplanting tomatoes yesterday and was in and out of the garage several times and I was making some of my flame worked glass beads.  Cindy uses  wooden clothes pins to secure shade cloth over tender plants.  She keeps the clothes pins in a basket on top of one of the cabinets and when she reached up to get them, this is what she saw looking back at her:

Hello There!

Turns out it is a  Southern Alligator Lizard, Elgaria multicarinata.  These lizards are considerably bigger than the Western Fence Lizards we usually see scooting around our patio and garden, with a combined body and tail length up to twelve inches long, but like some other lizards, the Southern Alligators Lizards also are able to shed their tails as a defensive measure and then regenerate the tails.  See: http://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/southern-alligator-lizard.htm.  Our lizard's tail was a grayish brown and did not have the scale pattern that the body had, so we think this one had regenerated its tail.

This One Has a New Tail

After an initial reaction of shock at finding the lizard in the basket on top of the cabinet, we decided to see if we could get it out of the garage without damage to either the lizard or ourselves.  Fortunately, the lizard was content to just go along for the ride in the basket and didn't jump out at me or run up my arm or do any of the other things it could have.

I'm Ready For My Close-up, Mr. DeMille!

When we got it out of the garage, of course I had to take some pictures, and then we decided to relocate it into the cool space under the Star Jasmine bush on the north side of the garage.

Lizzy's New Home

We're hoping it likes its new home in the shrubbery and doesn't try to get back into the garage.  And it's welcome to all the bugs it can eat.

Alligator Lizard

Cindy found a San Diego Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata webbii) in the garage yesterday.  It was missing most of its tail, so she wasn't sure at first it was really a lizard because it was so big and blunt looking.  It tried to get under the refrigerator but was too big.

Unfortunately, it then ran back into the corner of the garage where we keep the golf clubs we never use anymore since SOMEBODY became obsessed with GARDENING and won't take a day off to play golf.

Anyway, we figure the lizard will eat all the spiders in that part of the garage, then leave when it gets hungry again.  So that's the plan.  They're not poisonous, but I'm not going in there after it.