Leave The Lizards Alone

“Daddy I just saw a lizard!” said my daughter the other day from her perch on the living room couch.

“A lizard?” I asked. We live in Southern California, and there are little lizards all over the place. But we’ve never had one in our house before. Yet she insisted she saw one and that it had crawled beneath the cabinet. That cabinet is bolted to the wall. I made a mental note and left it alone.

Then yesterday morning, preparing to leave for the day, I saw the lizard at the base of the staircase, just as she’d described. I made a move toward it, and it scurried underneath the couch. There was no time to pursue it. We left it to the mercy of the cats, and I spent the morning Googling “lizard infestation” and asking peoples’ advice. I’m reasonably certain that it came in through our fireplace and that it’s not alone. My wife calmly projected, “There’s probably a nest in there.” A nest of lizards in my house. Awesome.

Yet the advice I’m getting is to leave the lizards be. They’re harmless. They’re actually helpful, as they will consume lots and lots of bugs. Two cats are something of an insurance policy against the population getting out of control, so leave the lizards alone.

GRATUITOUS METAPHOR WARNING

What are the lizards in our lives and communities? What happenings or people scurry into our routines to unsettle us and spook us and maybe even cause our hair to stand on end but that are actually harmless? Are we battling creatures that will actually promote health and balance if we can only get comfortable with their presence in our otherwise orderly house? What looks like an infestation but might actually be pest control?

What are are lizards? And do we have cats?