And an armadillo in my yard.

Now, as opposed to, say, banana spiders, I think lizards are kind of cute. When I first saw this guy, I worried that he'd starve inside, and went looking for a way to escort him out again. I thought I could get him to climb into an envelope, and then I'd put him outdoors. Of course, he's much too fast for me, so I never got near him. But I discovered two things: one, I'm told these guys can slip through tiny little cracks, and he probably goes in and out more than I do. And two, I saw him on the window frame snapping up a gnat, after which he leapt across the window to land on the opposite frame and snap up another one. So far from starving, he probably comes in here, where there's not a lot of competition from other life forms, for a good meal.

And the armadillo?

I knew they had them in the jungle around this place. I saw one skittering away from the dining hall trash cans last week, but I didn't see much of him. The folks here told me to listen for a lot of rustling in the dead leaves; apparently armadillos aren't subtle. Yesterday I heard what I assumed was a cat -- there are two adult feral cats here and two kittens, and this sounded like a kitten chasing leaves. But I went and looked and lo! an armadillo, snuffling through the fallen leaves from the scrub oaks. I watched him for like ten minutes, industriously digging with his paws, gobbling down whatever he found, snuffling some more. I'm told they can smell grubs a significant distance underground, which is why farmers like my sister don't think they're cute. To me, with that spotted shell and those silly oblong ears, this one was adorable.