Ali was cleaning the bar area recently, and noticed droppings of some sort in a neat little pile in the corner. I assumed we had a rodent, and immediately chastised the cats for being lazy. I then picked up the phone, and called our organic exterminator. He said, “We don’t do mammals.” (Yes, those were his exact words.) He then referred me to another company.
The next day, Joe, the mammal “and everything else” exterminator, showed up, and examined the droppings. He turned to me, and said, “That’s no mouse, ma’am. Looks like you have a lizard, and quite a big one at that!”
I looked at him, stunned. How big? What type of lizard? We’re in Florida, after all. Does the lizard have horns? Large teeth?? Does it devour small children? Joe didn’t know what type of lizard it was. I stood there, waiting for him to describe what he planned to do about our problem. He just stood there staring back at me.
I finally asked, “Okay, well, what do we do?!”
He smiled, picked up his tools, and said, “You catch it!”
He didn’t charge us for the visit, which was very sweet. We looked ALL over the bar area, and couldn’t find the little (big!) thing. The cats haven’t found it yet either because, just yesterday, there were a few fresh droppings in the exact same corner of the bar. I never knew lizards were so tidy!
This week’s Masonism:
We attended the county fair last Monday, where Max and Mason had submitted some of their homeschooling crafts for the big arts and crafts exhibit. They were both thrilled to win ribbons!
After looking at the crafts, we stopped for some cotton candy. The small cotton candy was $4 while the larger bag was $6. I handed Mason $4 and he approached the counter, saying, “May I have a small cotton candy please?”
The female carnival worker leaned out, peered down at him, smiled, and said, “Oh my goodness! You are the cutest thing I have ever seen and you have such good manners! You’re my favorite boy ever!”
Mason smiled back, and said, “Okay. Make it a medium then.”
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/