You ever seen these?
We had a visitation the other day. Two of these guys. One as you see above. Outside the house, may I thankfully point out. The other one was actually in the bedroom.
Nobody spotted the bedroom-guy but me — so I hustled out the door with the pile of clothes on which he was perched, before either one of the cat-boys was alerted. I confess to being a little, well, agitated, because they remind my own lizard-brain of snakes and so that’s all she wrote as far as the amygdala is concerned and goodbye reason altogether.
That’s my excuse, anyway, for shaking out the clothes a little too enthusiastically and sending the little refugee sailing out over the concrete bang onto his head. Poor guy lay there stunned for half a second and then took off in a hurry under the house.
There is controversy about skinks and cats. Some vets attribute neuronal issues to cats having eaten skinks; others say it’s not so and the symptoms are idiopathic vestibular disease or liver flukes.
Don’t you love that word “idiopathic”? “Arising spontaneously or of obscure or unknown origin.” These days I’ve been feeling pretty idiopathic myself.
Many thanks to the dear reader who brought this to my attention. Whatever the answer — I’m very glad I beat the boys to the punch in any case. Don’t need any more idiopathic controversy than we already have!
So the only photo I could get was of the above guy, stomach-side only. But they are truly beautiful topside. Way too slithery for me to catch a shot of one, so thank you Wikipedia for this one:
They really are all those colors.
Barney spots stomach-guy.
How now, stomach-guy?
This didn’t last — stomach-guy took a powder.
Where did he go?
Ah well, Barnes. Have some raw organic grass-fed local lamb instead.
catself 
We’d heard this name before but had no idea of what kind of critter it belonged to. It is pretty on its back, but Mommy says she wouldn’t want one in the house. They look pretty nommy to us, however. Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
We don’t get skinks here – just garden-variety lizards. More’s the pity – my human loves all sorts of reptiles (snakes especially included!) and I think those skinks look fun to hunt!
Very exciting! We have no lizards but if we did they wouldn’t last long with Odin around.
Ugh, I would have totally flipped out and lost it if I saw one of those in the house! eek! You’re braver than I would have been, I’d have made someone else toss it out, even if I had to call in a neighbor! lol
Poor Barney though, his toy ran away!
If they eat mosquitoes , in Louisiana we would consider them friends
Ewwww I can barely look at those because they give me the heebie jeebies!!
I am glad we don’t have those!!! When I was in Israel there were plenty, especially geckos. Tiny little things. One lived in my room. Gave me the heebee jeebees too!! One day I accidentally shut him in the door!! Ooops! I’m a murderer!!
wow, your kitties are very well fed 🙂 I like that in an owner
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Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Oh. My. Cod! Be very VERY glad that you got the skink out before the boys found it. Lizards are no big deal, but skinks are VERY BAD NEWS. They are poisionous to kitties – they contain neurotoxins that affect them badly, even to the point of death. We have skinks her in Florida, and I know of several people that have lost cats to skinks, and a couple that have kitties that now have neurological issues from putting the bitey on one. If they let go of the skink quickly, they generally just walk funny with their heads tipped sideways for a few weeks, but if they don’t let go and it’s a full gown skink, the poison can kill them. I’m so glad you took care of the little bugger without assistance. 🙂
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