So I was surprised when one evening, a couple of months ago, he left the garden to eat dinner and snapped at me for no apparent reason. “You’re irritable,” I said.

“You want to know why?” he retorted. “My lizard died.”

Blue tongue lizards are one of Australia’s favorite backyard buddies, and it turns out my husband had quietly enjoyed the companionship of one who called our garden home.

But then today my puppy was inquisitively checking something out by our back door. She had stopped in her tracks.

I walked over, and there it was — another lizard basking in the sun, lazily flicking her bright blue tongue.