Stone cold lizard killer in the Jacksonville sun...

I thought that I would take you out with me on a walk with Gary today. During the week we live in an apartment in Jacksonville while my husband works on the new courthouse here ..

Pretty cool building huh?

I go home with Gary every weekend to look after our house...but I digress....

Our apartment complex is on a nature preserve and we see all sorts of flora and fauna each day when we walk round. The complex is huge - it's a mile to walk to the reception office! There are trails that allow you to walk through the woods to other sections of the apartments and mini lakes all around. There are swimming pools, gyms and tennis courts, all the good stuff, and although it's a little old it's been well maintained and its a change from our house...and heh, my hubbie has a job, so no complaints from me in this economy!

Gary and I have some nice walks mapped out now, and today we took a camera....

Come on mummy...you are lagging

So we were off and immediately came to a standstill whilst Gary stopped to lick on something in the grass..as I got over I saw that it was a beer bottle...Heineken...well at least Gary is showing his European streak ;-) pulling him away I hurried him along the path around the small lake outside our apartment and onwards..

We were soon stopping again for Gary to chase a lizard. This is not a good omen for the rest of the walk as once he's seen one he is obsessed.

I dragged him onwards and we were soon being barked at by the annoying little pugs that the people living in the apartments across the way leave on their balcony all day. I have a few problems with this..

1. The balcony is about 12 x 6 ft..on it there is a table and chairs, a plant and the cages for the two pugs...pretty crowded
2. It's been nearly 100f with the humidity factor, and although they have a fan up there for them I don't think that it's really going to make much difference
3. The people used to bring them down to 'potty' (note...no baggies ever used to pick up ...nice) but now they are so lazy they don't even bother, so the animals are pottying up on the balcony
4. They are vicious little f****..they bark and growl at everyone and everything and now they have broken through the screen in an attempt to break out...

Looks cute...trust me he's not
But we got past without a pug committing hari kari on us, and continued on with what was now a full blown lizard hunt.

Every tree had to be investigated and either marked or sniffed or both! no stone or mushroom was left unturned - although as Gary went mooching towards these I pulled him away quickly as I had visions of a hallucinating dog!

The prey....it's pretty hard to get pictures of lizards when your naughty little dog is trying to rip them apart...the lizards normally have a sixth sense that they should be moving...quickly!

AND THEN IT HAPPENED...and it doesn't happen very often as lizards are quick little buggers!...Gary caught and killed a lizard. Now I'm not particularly squeamish, but the picture I took was not really suitable for a blog! Naughty Gary..( that's about number 10 by the way!) I tried to pull him away, but it's like a red haze descends on him...and then it was dead, no longer struggling under the pounding of his paws...and then the haze disappears and he just looks at it...I am disgraced..my dog is a stone cold killer showing no remorse...the strange thing is is that once the murder has been committed he no longer wants to chase and missed 3 or 4 more juicy lizards on the way back home...

Is there counselling for dogs? or maybe it should be who should be me having the counseling as they say dogs take on their owners personalities...