In my yard, there are a lot of lizards, an abnormal amount of lizards, in my opinion. And, normally, I don't mind lizards. In fact, I appreciate the fact that they eat mosquitoes and since they go about their business and leave me to mine, I happily share the space with them. I do admit that even the thought of having one drop on me makes me shudder, but since that hasn't happened since my Bouake days, I live at peace with the lizards.

However, my dog seems to be a big fan of lizards. She finds them to be an enticing chase and a tasty treat. Lately, she seems to be overly successful in her capture of the lizards and all to frequently I find dead, half eaten lizards around the yard. Just yesterday, I was waiting on my porch for my language teacher to arrive when Zola started chasing a lizard. The lizard, realizing he couldn't be beat, played dead and when Zola tried to pick the lizard up by his tail, the lizard dropped it's tail and Zola came running over to me with her writhing prize in her mouth, looking so proud! Even with Zola several meters away now, the lizard continued to play dead until Kutana arrived and picked him off the screen and let him go on the other side of the yard. The whole thing made me cringed!

Zola, my lizard catcher

However, because I'm a bit of a nerd, I googled lizards and have a few fun facts to share with you! Yes, I know you're very interested!

1.) A fact which I didn't learn on Google, but learned from my Tamasheq friends. The Tamasheq word for lizard is pronounced "ah-buh-guhn-guhn." It's so far my favorite Tamsheq word. I like how it bounces around your mouth. Now you're all trying to sound it out, aren't you? Not only that, but I believe the word for a female lizard is "teh-buh-guhn-guhn." It strikes me funny that they have a word for both because so far, no one has been able to tell me how to spot the difference between male and female lizards, and, well, I probably don't want to get close enough to a lizard to be able to give it a real good look.

2.) If you go to Google Images and put in the word lizards, you'll discover that lizards compete with camels as some of the ugliest animals in the world!

3.) There's a breed of lizard that can only be found in the female variety. They lay unfertilized eggs that hatch into female lizards. I bet their lives are much less complicated!

4.) This is my favorite fact. Most lizards have a "weak tail" which means they can drop their tail to get away from predators (this I already knew, as I have to be careful not to step on the many dropped tails in my yard), however, it is to their disadvantage to drop their tails as it affects their social status. Yes, that's right. Male lizards who have dropped their tails have a harder time finding a mate. Talk about shallow!

And now you know more than you've ever wanted to know about lizards!