The Egyptians had their cats...

...but I myself am increasingly inclined to celebrate the humble anole.

Ancient cultures typically had the practical good sense to worship whatever saved their butts.

Screengrabbed from Google.

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned.  It has been four days since I posted my last anole picture."

Obviously it didn't end well for that critter in his lizardly jaws, but what is that??

Ummm, did this kindred spirit blogger mention the word hate?? 

Screengrabbed from An Austin Homestead blog.  (This is actually just one of numerous "stink" insect species that are found on the upper Texas coast.)

The words "stink bug" inspire in outdoorsy Houstonians a visceral reaction quite similar to "invasive South American fire ants".  Austinites too, obviously.  They are a stinking pain in the butt, and given that I garden organically, anoles are my main line of defense against them. 

This was quite the riveting transaction to witness:

Anoles don't understand English and they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer, either.  I kept telling him, "Dude, you'd be having an easier time with that if you weren't also fighting gravity in the process."  But he didn't take the hint. 

Of course the whole time this epic swallowing thing was going on, the stink bug was fighting him big time.  The scene reminded me of yet another Star Trek dialog, given that I'm into quoting Star Trek these days:

"...but it's still moving."

Screengrabbed from this site.

Gagh and stink bugs are always best when served live?  Maybe, but they both trigger the obligatory gag(h) reflexes, apparently (a little onomatopoeia never hurt anybody).  Have you ever seen a lizard gag before?  You have now! 

Finally a successful swallow, but God, that's gotta hurt.

After careful consideration, I abandoned my plans to petition the state of Texas to declare the anole to be the new state reptile.  For one thing, having a Carolina anole as the state reptile of Texas just doesn't have a nice ring to it. 

For another thing, anoles aren't compelling candidates in the distributional sense.  The official state reptile, which is the Texas horned lizard, is fairly specific to Texas.

Texas horned lizard range map above screengrabbed from this site.

So the Texas horned lizard doesn't eat stink bugs - I guess we can live with that.  I'll just have to continue putting up anole fan pages.

One species' meat is another's poison.  But today I have one less gagh in my garden, and that's a good thing. 

Quote screengrabbed from this site.