Halls of the Dark Muse

I was out on my walk today when I happened upon this lizard sitting on the sidewalk, and at first I thought that the poor thing was dead, because it was just sitting there and did not run off or show any sign of movement when I approached, but when I reached down to touch it, it moved a little bit, and then I saw that the poor thing had been injured. My guess is that it probably was nicked by a weed whacker (I knew I did not like that guy who tried to talk to me the other day, no doubt he was the one who did it as it was around the same location). I could not just leave it there like there helpless and exposed where it might bake in the sun, or be stepped on, or some kids might intentionally harm it, or a dog or something find it, so I picked it up, and noticed that its wounds looked pretty bad and I did not know if in fact there was much hope of recovery, but I felt I couldn't just abandon the poor darling little creature to be left to further potential harm and suffering.

With no real plan of what I was ultimately going to do about the lizard I decided to carry it with me, so at least he would not be all alone and I could offer him some shelter and protection and proceeded on my walk with the lizard cradled in one of my hands while contemplating just where this was eventually going to lead. Somehow it did not feel right to just ditch the lizard somewhere and yet, I did not think its odds of living were very good and if I took it home I did not know what I could do with it. I didn't know exactly what kind of lizard it was so I didn't know just what I should feed it or even if it would eat in its condition but for the moment I continued on my way with it, having no better plan at moment to act upon.

Then as I got further on, he began to show some more signs of life and started to squirm around and try to crawl away out of my hand, and I didn't want to risk dropping it on top of everything else and at this point I was nearing the creek so I decided the best thing to do would be to find a nice little spot to set it down. So I placed him under a shady plant where I figured it would not be bothered by people, and it was sheltered from the sun as well hopefully concealed from other possible predators and near to water.

I don't know ultimately if he will have a chance at survival but at the very least I hope that I was able to offer him a peaceful little sanctuary.

Then as I continued with my walk I thought for a moment I found a severed human toe, which at first kind of freaked me out, but there was this rock on the ground that was exactly the shape of a toe and had a fleshy color to it, and dirt on it that looked like a toenail so at a glance it totally looked like someone's toe just lying in the dirt.

Of course I did the only natural thing to do in such a situation and I nudged it with my show a little bit to turn it over and see if indeed it really was a toe, but at last discovered that it was only a rock.