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| Thursday, January 26, 2006 |
| Wildlife Indoors |
There was a gecko in the kitchen. Mr Ata found it and - against Ata's advice - directed Bosco's attention toward it. The gecko was in a corner of the room, high up, against the ceiling. Well out of Bosco's reach. But having been shown it, he could not remove the thought of the gecko from his furry feline mind. Eventually, Bosco was given to Ata to hold in the loungeroom while Mr Ata finished preparing the tea and cake. Bosco jumping on the table was becoming a severe distraction for Mr Ata.
"I told you so," said Ata.
Tea and cake was brought into the lounge for consuming, and the door shut to ensure that Bosco could not reach the gecko even if it came down from it's perch. Bosco, clearly obsessing over the unreachable gecko, did his best to open the sliding door. Fortunately, he has not learned the manipulating of doors. But it was annoying to have him keep pulling on it.
"Bosco," said Mr Ata, "Come here. Forget about the gecko."
"I told you so," said Ata.
When the TV show was over and Ata & Mr Ata ready to retire, Bosco was restrained while Ata attempted capture of the gecko. It was maybe the length of her index finger, soft beige body with yellow stripes and delicate, tiny spots. It was also very wiggly, and had to be chased down the wall, across the floor, and under the table. Despite catching it under a cupped hand several times, Ata was cautious of accidentally crushing the fragile skeleton inside the cool soft skin, or inadvertantly causing tail-shedding, and the gecko escaped as she tried to get a gentle grip on it's torso. Eventually it was corralled long enough to be picked up and placed on a palm for a closer look. Ata loves geckos, with their careful, precise markings and fat toes. The geckos in Adelaide are not the same as the geckos she fell asleep listening to in the Far North as a child, but they are beautiful all the same. Alice Springs geckos are not so nice - fat, pallid, ghostly things. Ata remembers a Dreamtime story about how the gecko got it's markings - painted on carefully and precisely by a skink. When the time came for the gecko to paint the skink, the gecko - less skilled or less cautious a painter, depending on who's telling the story - smears the colours on the body, but by the time the skink notices the paint has dried and it is too late. This is why geckos have stripes and spots in careful patterns of yellow and brown, but skinks do not. Every time Ata sees geckos, she thinks of this story, and wonders if she remembers it right.
The gecko is duly released into the wilds of the rockery out front. It is too shocked by the whole experience to run immediately away, so Ata and Mr Ata leave it on the mulch to recover. Bosco must remain indoors, like a socially and ecologically responsibly kept beastie that he is, to dream gecko dreams in his box on the fridge. |
posted by Ata @ 10:36 pm  |
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| 2 Comments: |
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"I told you so," said Ata
(several times)
I bet you enjoyed that part of it.
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Ahhhh.... being right. Always the most satisfying part of the day.
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"I told you so," said Ata
(several times)
I bet you enjoyed that part of it.