Jack the Lizard

This is Jack. I found him in my garage while doing laundry. The boys caught him. They are so brave. I saw the opportunity for "nature study", but was unwilling to do the risky work of catching him myself.

So I stood behind them, helpfully directing them and uttering encouraging words like: "don't let him get in the house!" and "just scoop him up, scoop, scoop."(also pantomiming, lest they fail to understand)

They totally appreciated my wisdom.

This is Charles releasing Jack.
We kept him for a few days. We observed. We drew pictures. We fed him snails and slugs and bugs. (by "we", I mean, the boys). We nearly lost him a few times thanks to someone small. We consulted our "Nature of California" book to see what kind of lizard he was (alligator). And then we released him. Apparently, to keep one of these lizards you need a larger aquarium than I am willing to invest in. He is too big to keep in a gallon jar, (see this post) which is my limit.
I may be FunMom, but I have a line. And that's it. No animals too big to keep in a gallon jar, and no animals longer than four weeks.
I found this book at Borders a few years ago and the boys love everything about it. It's a great little resource for identifying animals in California. I wouldn't say it's exhaustive, but it's helpful. And the first chapter or two is about evolution, which I don't subscribe to. So we don't read that part. But it's got great pictures and the boys love checking it when we're out and about for the animals they see. They also just love looking at it any old time.