That little green critter you can barely find in the grass is an Anolis carolinensis. In this part of Southeast Texas, we have always called them Chameleons, but they are not – they are not Chameleons, or even False Chameleons which are entirely different species. Like Chameleons, they do change color to match their surroundings.
We have them by the thousands, and here at the Boggy Thicket, we had two Anolis-related incidents this past week.
In the first, our black and tan Dachshund, Tinker, who is an avid lizard hunter, jumped up against the side of the garage. Although she didn’t quite reach her prey, she hit the wall hard enough that the lizard fell (or jumped) to the ground where it was soon captured.
Once the lizard was eaten, Tink began to limp, holding one front foot completely off the ground. Our first thought was that she had broken a nail, but that wasn’t the problem. As I held Tinker, Honey gave her affected leg a little tug. There was a loud pop, and when we put her down, everything was all right. She put her foot down very carefully for the first few steps, but was soon running around like nothing had ever happened.
Throughout the incident, Tinker never yelped or even whined. That is one tough dog!
A day or so later, when Honey opened the back door, a lizard jumped off the door onto the clothes dryer. When she tried to catch him he ran out of reach behind the washing machine.
We saw him again an hour later and I chased him out of the utility room, through the kitchen and finally cornered him under the dinner table. When I opened the door to throw him out, the lizard wriggled out of my hand, ran up my arm and perched on the top of my head.
Before I could catch him again, he jumped. We thought he jumped outside, but an hour or so later I caught him again, back in the kitchen. He was changing color, trying to match the light brown rug in front of the sink.
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