animal encounters in arizona

coco our dog lived in the backyard obviously.

and all around our yard we had a tall cinderblock wall. behind it was a dry creek bed. 

there were lots of lizards in arizona and we would catch them sometimes, sam was braver than me and would actually catch them, sometimes their tails would fall off, which is a funny thing about lizards. 

a lady that we knew ( i don't remember her last name but i think her and her husband lived in a house with a big shaggy white dog) brought us a lizard she had caught in her office, in a styrofoam cup. 

once coco caught a little robin, he chased after it and cornered it and tried to eat it. 

we saved it and let it stay in our shed on a pillow ( one of my pillows that had a green edging and little green bears on it i think) 

when it was well my mom took it out to the backyard and we sat down and held it. 

it stayed on my mom's finger for a little while before it flew away.

once i was just walking down the hall, minding my own business when my mom ran up to me screaming "stay right there stay right there!!!!!!" so i stayed. i heard her scream at sam to do the same. i don't think i was scared, i just thought something was horribly wrong like a stranger was coming into our house (strangers are bad). 

it turned out that it was a giant bug, either a giant cockroach or another massive beetle. 

my mom killed it with bug spray. 

and then it sat on our porch for a long time, probably waiting for my dad to come home and clean it up. 

my mom told the story of it forever afterwards i remember, at church and everywhere. 

she always said "and i sprayed it! and i sprayed! and it finally died"

once sam ate a dead cockroach off the ground. 

i don't remember that actually, but i have heard the story.