A wonderful headline ("Sit. Stay. Parse. Good girl!") attracted me to this New York Times story about a border collie who knows more than 1,000 nouns and appears to understand verbs. It mentions a Nova episode about dogs' intelligence.

Godzuki was a foot-long salamander, light green with dark green stripes. Katherine Simmons and her children found him on an asphalt parking lot in Nebraska, and immediately rescued him from the traffic and birds, taking his scaly hide into the family bosom.

As a pet, Godzuki entertained young Jennifer and Joe for 16 years, running through wrapping paper tubes, balancing on the end of his tail. The Simmonses never even knew if he was a boy. But it didn't matter. He was their cherished reptile.

Now that he's gone, the Simmons family of Durham is seeking a biologist of some sort who can reduce 'Zuki to a skeleton, perhaps to display on a shelf.

 "I just think that having Godzuki's skeleton would be an interesting way to still have him around," writes Katherine. "I find myself looking at the terrarium to check on him."

Is there a reptile taxidermist in the house?

All right, so technically this isn't Wake County, but we couldn't resist. 

One Kat Simmons of Trinity Park in Durham is hunting for a biologist to help preserve the remains of the family's dead tiger salamander, Godzuki. After 16 years, they still aren't sure whether the beloved reptile was a boy or a girl, but they'd still like to have his/her skeleton.

Watch this space for new developments!

A reader called today before I got in and said she was worried about turtles.

I worry about turtles too. Last week, I was driving to work and saw a little brown thing with its head sticking up in the middle of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. I pulled over to the shoulder a few hundred feet down.

Morning commuters were whizzing by. I ran back to where I’d seen it, only to discover my turtle was ... a workman’s glove with the thumb sticking up

“Today I discovered a couple of turtles heading up to the road,” said this morning's caller, who didn’t leave her name or number. “All the turtles are going to be laying eggs so they’re going to be crossing roads.”

She said she knows this because she called the Triangle Land Conservancy after peeling one off the road. “It was quite horrific,” she said.

This could be a good story. We’ll try to look into it this week and let you know what we find out.     

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