Looking back; my parent's weren't the most responsible pet owners. They are forgiven because back then (without giving away my age) most people didn't spay and neuter their pets like we do today. We had several outside cats that had several litters of kittens. As a child, I could accurately sex a kitten at it's birth which should tell you something.. haha.
My parents always figured that somehow my life was going to be revolving around animals. I was the little kid in the neighborhood that saved all the little creatures. I had a box turtle, a baby squirrel that fell from a tree during a hurricane, a Green Anole Lizard that I recused from the mouth of my outside cat. And at a time I also had a dove with broken wing that I was rehabilitating. There was even a time or two that I had to bottle feed and hand raise kittens when one of our outside Momma cat's had rejected their kittens. I cried so hard when I was unsuccessful at saving them. I experienced the fact "that you can't save them all" from a very young age. I ran my little makeshift rescue operation from my childhood room.
My most outstanding memories of all my rescue efforts from my childhood is Lizzy The Lizard's Story.
Lizzie was my Green Anole Lizard that I recused from the mouth of my tortoise shell calico cat, named Boots. One summer afternoon, I found Lizzy literally dangling from the "mouth of the lion" when I rescued him. Boots just happened to be walking up on the side walk in the front of my house when I opened the front door going outside. The first thing I saw was Boots walking there in front of me with this helpless little green body of a lizard dangling from her mouth. I didn't know if it was still alive or dead but I was in total shock. I was no older than 12 years old at the time.
I ran over to my cat and yelled at her to release the lizard from her mouth. As if she understood my every word and emotion; she quickly released her death grip that she had over the lizard. Lizzy dropped to the concrete sidewalk and I hurriedly swooped him up and examined him. He had one puncture wound on his belly and one on his back. I ran in the house with the lizard in the palm of my hand. The lizard must have been in shock because he was limp at the time, but he was very much alive. I took him to our tiny little bathroom and searched in the medicine cabinet for peroxide and neosporin. I poured peroxide on him and it fizzed up and then I dabbed some triple antibiotic cream on his wounds.
In searching the bathroom I also found an empty old Dove soap box and placed Lizzie in there to rest. He just stayed there and rested like I told him to do. It really was the strangest thing. He never tried to run away or get away from me, not even once. It was like he knew I was helping him from the very start.
I kept Lizzie in his little Dove soap box and frequently checked on him. His wounds quickly healed and he started to have a appetite again. To start with while his was in his soap box hospital room; I went outside and hit flies with the fly swatter to feed him freshly killed flies. He ate them all, every single one.
I kept in him a open cardboard box in my garage at night. At any time he could have left his confinements and would have been freed, but he never did. He never even tried to. Every time I ran to his cardboard box in the morning to check on him; I wasn't sure if he would still be there or be gone. I was kinda delighted that he never left.
Months went by. All I had to do was put my first finger in front of his soap box and he would come out and step on it. He proudly perched there and I would take him outside for his hunt for flies. I would put him on my monkey bars and hit flies with the fly swatter to feed him the dead flies that I placed in front of him. He would also sit there on my monkey bars and wait for flies land near him so he could eat them.
I could walk away and leave him unattended for moderate periods of time and he would amazingly still be there close to the same area when I came back to check on him. I never had to pick him up, he could have left at any time, he had every opportunity to be free. I never had the intention of keeping him as my prisoner, I just wanted to help him at the time be healthy and happy.
After he had his belly full and it was nearly dark, all I had to do was put my index finger in front of him again and he would hop on it and perch there as I walked him back inside my garage and placed him back in his his dove soapbox bed. Looking back, it was one of the most remarkable experiences I have ever had pertaining to animals.
Then one day it happened. I went over to check on him and it was worse than him being gone. He was laying there dead. All the time that I had invested, the fun that we had together, the amazing experience had come to an end. I was torn to pieces and I ran inside the house crying and told my Dad that Lizzy had died. Of course he said leave him in there he would bury him in a little while. I told him that I wanted to be there when he buried him, but he said no. My parents understood and knew how attached I had become to that little green lizard I called Lizzie.
Now looking back, over the years I have always thought about Lizzie. Every time I step outside and see one of these skid-dish little green anole lizards scooting by. I think of Lizzie every single time.
As it turns out, one winter I was going through a pile of dirty laundry in my Dad's garage because the washer and dryer was in there. As I was sorting laundry a little green anole lizard fell out and I was shocked into the realization that Lizzie probably didn't die back then as I had thought, but instead he probably went into hibernation due to the lowering temperatures of the approaching fall season. I was in horror at the thought that my Dad might have buried him alive. So I had to ask if he really buried him alive or just threw him behind the fence line in the woods. Thankfully, he didn't bury him and I hold on to the hope that Lizzie awoke his hibernation a free lizard. In memory of Lizzie the lizard... Love you always and I hope you lived many years after being recused from the mouth of the lion. <3
~Author, Jenni (me)
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