Here out west, we have a lot of lizards. But there is one particular lizard that you can see on your property, on the walls of your house and crawling across the top of the block walls that surround the property (they even do push-ups on the top of the wall), and they sometimes get inside your house.

Every time one of these lizards get in the house, I'm reminded of Linda's mom and her battle with a mouse that had gotten up in the vines that were growing on the wall of their back porch. She really disliked mice and, as I came through the house, I saw her through the window swatting the wall with a broom. I went out to see what was going on. Getting the full picture, it was in a particular sequence. She would get close to wall, take a swat at the mouse, step back and holler a high pitched "Whoop". To her this wasn't funny. And so it went for a few moments. Step up-swat-step back-whoop. Step up-swat-step back-whoop. (I thought it was hilarious) Finally she knocked the mouse off the vine. The mouse came out and landed under her feet as she was stepping back. There were a few more whoops as she ran into the house. It has become a family story to tell.

Back to the lizard.

On our back porch Linda has put up curtains to keep the dust off the furniture when the dust storms come through. Most of the time they are gathered at each post and tied with a decorative rope. Yesterday, Linda decided to wash the curtains and volunteered me to help. So we detached them from the hangers that are on a cable that stretches the length of the porch.

Linda picked about five sections of curtain and put them in the washing machine. After they finished she ask me to put them in the dryer. I notice they were almost dry so she said to hang them over the fence to finish drying.

As I was laying them on the dryer, I noticed a lizard clinging to one of the curtains. I told Linda to come and look, and like her mother, let out a couple of whoops and headed for the door. I folded up the curtain to contain the lizard so I could get it outside. These lizards are normally very quick. I slowly unfolded the curtain and tried to shake the lizard off. He had his little claws dug into the material and was showing very little life. Finally I got him off but he wasn't moving well. I did manage to get him under one of the chairs,  I didn't want our dog to get it.

I started to think what this little fellow just went through. One wash cycle, with detergent and a rinse. Another wash cycle, no detergent, and another rinse cycle and a spin dry. No wonder he wasn't moving well. His mind must have been spinning around in his head and no telling how much detergent he swallowed. I check on him a couple of times to see if he was still under the chair. The next time he was gone.

After what he went through he deserves to live.