Godzilla and Turkeys

NEWSFLASH: For your reading enjoyment, today's post is submitted by a Guest Blogger. (Actually it is an email update that Chris sent to Eric highlighting our latest adventures as we experience our first May in Rocklin. Maybe I can get him to write about the coyotes next time!)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009: Couple of stories from the home front--

First, I go out to get in my car to go to work. Next to the driveway just walking around eating was a large wild turkey. Sure wish I had Sydney with me. . .would have made for a fun time.

The second one Mom told me when I got home last night. Apparently yesterday afternoon she went out in the garage to get something. She was talking on the cordless phone while she went in the garage. She goes out by the refrigerator and looks down and curled up is about a 6-7” alligator lizard. Mom’s first thought was that it might be a snake but then saw it was a big ‘ol lizard. Hearing Mom tell how she tried to keep her composure on the phone after she saw the lizard was classic! The lizard then took off and went behind some boxes.

So, last night after dinner Mom and I take Sydney in the backyard to run her. We get done and Mom goes back thru the side garage door while I stay out with Sydney. Next thing I know Mom comes running out to tell me that the lizard is in the garage again. I give the leash (with Sydney attached) to Mom and we all head to the garage.

Sure enough, the lizard is laying on the garage floor along the wall right next to the door to the laundry room. Now I’ve become the “Croc Hunter”. I grab a bucket and decide I’m going to try and catch this critter. I didn’t want to grab him like a small lizard because I didn’t know if they bite (which I found out this morning from Mr. Boyes, who has had personal interaction with alligator lizards, that they do bite). So I’m trying to get “Godzilla” (which is now the name we’ve given the lizard) to run into the bucket and he (or she, hard to tell with lizards) is not in a cooperative mood. In the meantime, Mom is trying to hold Sydney back on the leash who is now practically choking herself to the point of passing out wanting to get over where I’m at. . .not because she sees the lizard but simply due to her wanting to be involved in whatever I was doing.

While Sydney is flopping around on the leash like a 30 pound trout, Godzilla and I continued our epic battle and Mom is calling out instructions to me like Vince Lombardi on the sidelines of a Green Bay Packers game. Godzilla now decides he is going to run under the carpet cleaner I have sitting next to the refrigerator. So I continue my quest and move the carpet cleaner. Godzilla runs out and I’m doing my best to herd him into the bucket as if I’m John Wayne moving cattle in one of his cowboy movies.

At this point I think Godzilla was getting tired of this game so he does his best Houdini impersonation and escapes thru some unseen opening and now, as best I can tell, has taken up residence somewhere under the foundation of the garage. Later in the evening we relay the story to Kristin who is now afraid to go out in the garage because she doesn’t want to come face to face with Godzilla.

(Stay tuned for further adventures with Godzilla!)