New (Kind of…) Additions to Our Household Zoo

This past Summer, we drove down to Oklahoma to visit family (and Texas for our family reunion – which, BTW was in it’s 3rd consecutive month of triple digit weather).  While we were staying at my Sis & BIL’s Lakehouse in Okema, OK (and I DO mean LAKE HOUSE – 3 BR, 2 Baths, floor to ceiling window view of the lake, all pine wood floors/walls/ceilings, enormous 4 tier deck, 2 boats, etc, etc…) my son caught a lizard that’s indigenous to Eastern Oklahoma.  He researched the lizard and discovered it was called a 5-lined skink.  It was really kind of pretty – for a lizard – kind of a bright blueish purple colored body with bright yellow lines running from it’s head to the tip of it’s tail and about 3 inches long.

My son, always interested in animals, insects, reptiles and amphibians of all sorts, wanted to bring it back with us as a pet – which I love (OK, not so much the bugs, but…).  Soooo, we had an extra passenger on our trip back a few days later.  “Leslie” (my son gave it a unisex name since he had read that you can’t tell the sex until it’s matured…in a year or 2…) traveled 1,200+ miles back to Buffalo, NY in a large coffee can with grass, leaves & what small bugs my son could find to feed it with – AND SURVIVED (thankfully)!  I did feel guilty taking him/her out of their environment but given the alternative of being snake food (that’s a WHOLE nother post), I consoled myself that we were giving him/her a better home and consented.

More lizard posts to follow…