Another funny kid story

I was telling this story the other day, and realized I had never written it down anywhere. So what better place than here.

Once we had a lizard, a bearded dragon, named Elvis. We named him Elvis because he had some spiky things on the sides of his cheeks (do lizards have "cheeks"?) that reminded me of big sideburns, and so Elvis seemed to be a fitting name for him. Later we realized he was a female, but that is another story. Wow, thinking of that lizard brings back some funny memories. We spent more time looking for him than anything else!

So anyway, one day Elvis turns grey and quits eating. We took him to the vet and found out he was infested with intestinal worms. We did all we could do---dropper fed him, gave him medicine, soaked him in water to hydrate him....but he died.

Several months later there were a bunch of neighbor kids over here, and I heard an argument breaking out, so I went to intervene. One said, "Miss Charissa, isn't it true that Elvis died because he got hit by a car?" And another kid said, "No, he got shot!" So I corrected them both: "Boys, you're both wrong. Elvis died because he had worms." Their jaws both dropped open, and they said, "He had worms?!"

So I went back to my duties, and later I had a thought that I felt like I needed to clarify. I went back to the boys, and I said, "Were you talking about Elvis our lizard, or Elvis the singer?"

It's a good thing I clarified. I can just imagine them going home and telling their parents, "Miss Charissa said Elvis Presley died....of worms."