Saturday, December 15, 2007

Wildlife in the backyard

I've got a day of gardening planned today, and was getting stuff ready when I hear Billy growling and barking. Billy never growls unless it is at an animal of some kind, so I knew he'd found something.

I go outside and he's confronting a blue tongue lizard. These lizards are very common in Sydney, and this one was a reasonable size, probably about 30cm. The lizard was hissing away at Billy, Billy was growling and getting close to it. I thought he would be likely to get a bite from the lizard as they will attack if provoked. Billy was ignoring my commands at this point, and had a go at biting the lizard. I picked him up and chucked both dogs inside.

Now I had to do something about the lizard. I put my gloves on and got near him and he was hissing away at me now. There was no way I was going to pick him up, gloves or no gloves. So I got the shovel and picked him up, him hissing away, and deposited him out the back gate into the park.

Hopefully he is smart enough to pick another backyard to live in now!

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