An Interesting Guest

I was putting fire wood into the furnace when I noticed a plastic toy lizard laying on a stick of wood. No, wait where would a toy lizard come from? My kids are too old for that kind of thing! Hmm, I do believe it's alive! So, I careful helped the lethargic little creature into a glass jar and covered it with a mesh topped lid. Alright, now what am I going to do with the little critter?

A friend who teachers school took our guest to his class room today, his students found out what is was and a lot of interesting things about it. Turns out it's a salamander, part of the amphibian family and they like to hide/hibernate in old or rotting wood for the winter. Apparently, when wood burning fireplaces where the source of heating, it was common for salamanders to land in the fireplace along with a piece of wood and if they were lucky, they'd warm up and crawl out before things got too hot. Hence, the salamander is often associated with fire in fairy tails, folk lore and the Pokemon character Charmander, who's name comes from the word "char" (to burn) and salamander. If you are wondering, no the salamander is not magical, it cannot withstand fire, throw fire balls or walk through fire.

I've never seen a salamander around here before, they usually live in moister or aquatic areas so it was a surprise as our climate is dry. Our little guest, the salamander has gone back outside into a safer hiding place in the wood pile. It provided a little excitement, some education for our family and a classroom.