Читать книгу Our Silver Pond - Валерий Жиглов, Valeriy Zhiglov - Страница 4

One day, my father brought a present for me from a geological expedition – two jerboas and two roundhead lizards.

The lizards were released on the floor, and they saw a small hole near plinth and quickly hid in the newly found shelter. Very rare they went out to eat some pieces of sausage or meat and drink water from the plates prepared for them.

Time to time, when light was switched off in a room, and the TV set was switched on, the lizards were leaving their shelter to stand still. It is still a mystery for me, whether they listened to the sounds of music, which might remind them the buzz of insects they used to hunt for, or the lizards enjoyed the shimmering light of the TV screen, which might remind them the Moon. Desert and prairie dwellers hide from the daylight heat, preferring night hours for hunting.

Jerboas were living similar life. Those lovely species of prairie, being biologically close to hares, are visually in the middle between hares with extremely long ears and very small kangaroos. Although they are very small, they jump high above the ground on their rare limbs, just like kangaroos.

They were not too particular in what they were eating; dry grass and pieces of bread were good for them, provided there was water to drink, too. Jerboas were living in one room, where we closed the door for the night to prevent them from running throughout the entire house during night hours. They were particularly active in the night, and sleeping during the day.

When spring came, and everything around became green and the first flowers appeared, I took both the jerboas and the lizards out of the town with me and let them go.