I Saved A Lizard Today
I saved a lizard today...
I went to my daughter’s house to visit with her and my grandson. Once my sweet little grandson was napping my daughter approached me and said I have a dilemma, she said that out on the patio the propane tank for the grill had trapped a lizard. The propane tank had a circular base of metal that it rested on with 1 inch circular holes in it and a lizard had tried to crawl through one of the holes and had gotten stuck. She told me that she had tried to free the lizard without success and wondered if I had any ideas. I went out on the patio and regarded the situation. There was a beautiful lizard with iridescent blue green scales on its under belly stuck within the circle, its upper body was obviously to large to pull back through and would go against the grain of the scales and was not feasible, it seemed that the only recourse would be to pull it forward as you would an arrow or a fish hook, but if no action was taken the lizard would starve to death.
So here I am, do I do nothing and let the lizard starve, or maybe snap its neck to end suffering? (I have only seen that action in movies and am not quite sure how to accomplish that on a lizard) or do I manipulate its body and pull it all of the way through, possibly damaging its hind legs forever diminishing its ability to survive.
I wish I could communicate with the lizard to ascertain its wishes…. but alas I do not speak lizardnese, if it sustains disabilities will it have the ability to survive? Will it walk away unscathed? Will it live a painful life until a predator decides it is lunch? Who am I to decide such a thing?
In the end I look at the lizard and it opens it eyes and looks at me, into my soul it feels like. The lizard is a living thing, I decide to pull it through the hole, at least it is a chance in the face of starvation.
I pull it through, and it appears dead, and my daughter reminds me that lizards will often play dead to escape their predators. We leave it on the patio, we go about our business and 20 minutes later we go out to check on the lizard. The lizard is gone. The lizard was quite the thespian, we had almost accepted his performance.
I go home and ponder the lizard’s outcome which I will never know, I curl up in my easy chair, a glass of amber scotch in my hand, the ice cubes clinking melodically against crystal and think to myself
...I saved a lizard today