It's not like we didn't have lizards at our house in LA, but back then the dogs paid them no mind. Things are different here in the OC and I think we can chalk it up to one thing...
Detachable tails.
The dogs discovered that neat little trick on Easter Sunday. A lizard had unwittingly wandered onto our tiny back patio and caught the attention of the dogs. It tried to beat a hasty retreat but the dogs nearly caught it and that's when it pulled the rip cord and left it's squirming back end twisting in it's tracks as a diversion. The dogs found that delightful.
Things haven't been the same ever since, especially with my little girl. She has lizard on the brain. They're smart, those dogs. They seem to instinctively know that the lizards only come out mid-day, so the morning and evening walks are pretty sedate. The lunchtime walk is another matter entirely.
One o'clock is the lizard witching hour. If perhaps I'm preoccupied with work and not watching the clock, my little one will let me know it's time by frantically climbing up my leg with a manic look in her eyes. I saddle them up and then we're off to the races.
I politely refer to my little girl as "big boned." She's a bit on the husky side and not known for her speed. On the morning and evening walks, she dawdles, she sniffs, she oftentimes ends up being dragged just to keep the show moving.
On the Lizardwalk, however, she turns into a pit bull.
She moves like a jackrabbit. She remembers every single spot she has ever encountered a lizard and we visit them all like the Stations of the Cross. She's discovered the advantage of the element of surprise, so she launches herself into the shrubs without looking. She knows by now that the lizards like to hang out near the fences and walls, so she pounces around corners in "shock and awe".
Yesterday we hit paydirt.
We hadn't even gone 50 feet and they had already treed two fairly large lizards and now they were possessed. They looked rabid. Their leashes were snapped to full length and they were practically pulling my arms our of their sockets. Now they were dragging me, zigging and zagging through the complex to all the known spots. And then we got to the pool deck and my little girl took a flying leap at a bush near the gate, a known lizard hangout. There was immediate pandemonium from inside the bush but I couldn't make out what was going on when suddenly the biggest rat shot out the side and rocketed across the pool deck so fast it almost fell into the pool.
The dogs have never encountered a rat. And they wanted more.
If I thought the dogs were manic before, I hadn't seen anything yet. The rest of the walk was a harrowing experience. The dogs thought they saw rats everywhere and were diving into every random shrub. Much time was spent untangling leashes from branches and as we mercifully approached the house, my little girl made one last attack, flinging herself into a juniper bush. Jackpot! Out flew the most frightened looking squirrel I've ever seen. My daughter took off after it it, the leash unspooling like the fishing line in "Jaws". When it reached the end, it snapped.
The squirrel escaped into a tree. This time.
I picked up a new leash on the way home from school last night. My daughter is sitting her beside me as I type this.
Watching.
She knows it's almost time.
