That's what my lizards are called. Wow, thought they were just lizards. We have them everwhere also. Live in our sunroom. Kids always play with them outside. When I was a kid, I had one that used to sleep beside me on the side of my bed where the mattress was smaller than the bed frame. I named her/it "Liz".... creative huh? Didn't realize they ate THAT many mosquitos. We also have the red & black/Brown kind of maroon looking lizard things that are larger and beefier than the "anoles" (I think they are call skanks... but not sure). Wonder what they eat. They don't like to come inside too often). Funny stuff.

judijune, be careful with all those snakes! We get some venomous snakes too. My scariest situation was maybe 5 yrs sgo at my old farm when our Lab had cornered a huge Timber Rattlesnake out by the chicken coop. It was all coiled up rattlling its tail -holding its black rattler up high. It had a different sound than other snakes and from a distance without contacts/glasses on, I thought it was a black hornets nest lol! The dog was barking its foolish head off in that snakes face! Im shocked it didnt bite her..or me! I was at a loss of what to do because the dog would not back off, so finally I walked around the coop and up behind her and grabbed her tail pulling her backwards, away from the snake, until i could get hold of her collar and back up towards the house. That snake took off into the woods quick. I later learned that although massive and one of the most venomous rattelesnakes, The Timber rattler is not aggressive and will sometimes even play dead rather than strike. Good thing lol. I dread seeing another one. Diane, I Love those goat photos and their guardian dog! Its a smart thing getting the goats out there to keep the wildfire risk down. The silly photo: We had just got a new overgrown pasture section ready for the goats, a few days ago. We let them out, into it for the first time and they were all going nuts running around tasting everything. Some goats were rubbing their heads on the tall weeds like a scratching post lol. Somehow, this little guy got a big weed stuck on his head. Then he went up to the girls and they would try to eat the weed, then would run and they would all chase him trying to eat the weed. He tried it with the older female goats and they were not impressed and would butt him. They kept us laughing with their goofy antics!

An "old husbands's tale" huh, rhizo? Well, well, well....I guess the "old wives" have finally earned that right! ;-D (I am sure, however, that you are NOT an "old" wife). I started out with 12 adopted cats and virtually zero lizards, frogs, etc. Now that I'm down to 4 seniors, the population of anoles has increased and five-lined skinks are showing up in large numbers. The water garden attracts spring peepers, tree, leopard & bull frogs. All of the above has brought in rat, king and corn snakes, and just last week I spotted (briefly) a black racer in the back yard. But in 17+ years of living here, I have spotted a total of TWO toads, probably my favorite amphibian. That is very puzzling. Oh well, I'll just have to be content with the rest of "Ellie Mae's critters". Hope everyone is having a great summer. In 55 years I've never seen it this hot & dry. I hope we get some relief soon. The armadillos have noticed the moist soil in my yard and have shown back up, destroying everything in their path. On a lighter note... First-year-cutting of brugmansia 'Dolas Rosenresli' from Jesse, a GW trader from Californ-I-A

Originally heard in the context of folks (like plumbers) who work in the crawl spaces under houses... Lizards are great! If you have many lizards you are unlikely to have either lots of snakes or lots of spiders. [The rationale here is that lots of snakes would have eaten the lizards, and spiders would be eaten by the lizards. Either snakes or spiders are worse in dark, close quarters than lizards.] I also find that lizards, like frogs/toads, serve as a pretty good indicator of the health of my "range". If they're happy, things are in pretty good balance.