We had a very lovely visitor in our home for the week of Thanksgiving: a bearded dragon named Lizard of Oz. We did our best to take care of that sweet reptile, giving it light, warmth, calcium-coated crickets and, most of all, love.

It was Tiny’s class mascot and, due to some unknown malady, it has passed on to the great terrarium in the sky, where it now suns itself on the always-perfectly-100-degree-Fahrenheit rocks of the unknown beyond.

Was it a coincidence that it died only a few days after leaving our home? I’d like to think so.