Just Call Him Eeyore

Christopher Robin: There now. Did I get your tail back on properly, Eeyore? 
Eeyore: No matter. Most likely lose it again anyway. 

My daughter, Dimples,  likes to recommend topics for my posts, and she was quite certain that you would be impressed by this one.  Since we are currently in the middle of a standardized testing week and I, being a teacher, am not allowed to say anything about which I have plenty I would like to say, I decided to take her up on her suggestion.

A couple of nights ago, I glanced out our window, and saw not one, not two, but three lizards congregated on the pane.  I pointed it out to the family, who had just finished dinner, and everyone wandered over to get a better view.

When we got closer, we noticed that one of the lizards appeared to be biting the side of one of the other lizards.  It was a bit hard to tell since we were looking at them from the bottom.  He could have been just resting his head on the other one, I guess.  Although that doesn’t seem to happen a lot in nature, neither do I often observe two lizards frozen in some sort of death grip.  I guess the third lizard was just an innocent bystander.

I gently tapped the glass to see if any of the three would move.  For a brief moment, nothing happened.  Then the lizard who appeared to be the victim suddenly leapt away – right as my husband, Cap’n Firepants, wisely predicted, “He’s going to get his tail.”

And that’s exactly what happened.  If you have ever tried to capture one of these lizards yourself, you may have had the odd experience of grabbing its tail – and finding that is the only thing you are left holding.  These guys are great at escaping by sacrificing this appendage, and can grow another one back like a starfish replaces a limb.

So, that’s what happened.  Mean Lizard tried to bite Victim Lizard, only to grab the tail.  The tail came off, and all of us got to witness this inch and a half long piece hanging out of the lizard’s mouth – continuing to wiggle.  Victim Lizard, of course, escaped.  I don’t know what happened to Innocent Bystander Lizard because I was so grossed out by the scene that I immediately turned away.

The other two human members of the Firepants family, however, could not tear their eyes away from the fascinating nature documentary unraveling on our window pane.  Every couple of seconds I got to hear, “It’s still wiggling!”

I know; I should have gotten video footage.  Or at least a still picture.  If you are really interested in seeing a disembodied tail dancing around, you can always watch this YouTube video.

Have you seen my tail?