Beau the Lizard Whisperer

Beau is an amazing lizard catcher. 

The kid can deftly swipe a lizard off the exterior walls of our house or out from under a rock before the poor thing can think "Oscar!"  (That's the name of our favorite lizard-themed cartoon). He's a lizard whisperer, in fact, and will hold a contented-looking lizard in his hand for minutes at a time. Perhaps the poor thing is just petrified, but either way...

One time he got the crazy idea to freeze a lizard, reasoning that if we put the lucky chap in the freezer for a few minutes then when he came out he'd walk in slow motion. I'm sure it was an older sibling who encouraged this amateur form of torture. I decided to distance myself from any acts of cruelty, so the kids recruited Rus. They carried out the dirty deed, but luckily for all cold-blooded creatures, it didn't really work that well. The lizard just ran away when released, probably resolute in his decision to move to White Sands where only atomic weapons can hurt him. 

Beau learned this valuable trade from his older brother Jacob, who was taught by his cousin Luke. Jacob used to be the main lizard catcher, but hasn't quite gotten back in the saddle since a lizard bit him a month ago. I didn't know that lizards bit, just the same as I didn't know our old pet turtle Terdy would bite. (He did. Jacob aided in that discovery, as well.)

Marianne likes seeing the lizards, but we learned today that she is still a little squeamish about physical contact...

Lizards can provide endless hours of entertainment. Just now the boys were making two lizards have a face off,

And do goofy things like this:

Three cheers for having a backyard desert wonderland!