This is Raven. Getting this shot of her probably used up all my good luck for this month.

I didn't look up when Raven came trotting into the home office. I was deep in the lead up to Katie and Tristan's black moment and determined to keep going. 

That resolve lasted until Ms Melinda said, "What's she got in her mouth?" in a high-pitched, anxiety-provoking, please-tell-me-this-shit-isn't-happening tone. 

I looked up to find Raven sitting in the middle of the carpet with the long wiggling limb of some unknown creature protruding from between her oversized kitty fangs. 

Being a proud Australia--home of most of the scariest critters on the planet--I promptly screamed.

Raven, startled, dropped the critter.

And the tiny harmless garden lizard went scurrying for safety under the office's heavy wooden chest.

I'm going to spare you a recital of the whole comedy of errors that took place after that. But highlights included: 

• Ms Melinda and I both scrabbling around on our hands and knees with water glasses in hand trying to scoop up the poor distressed lizard.
• Both of us chanting, "Don't eat it. Don't eat it," at Raven when she showed us how it was done and caught the lizard for a second time. 
• Raven's look of utter betrayal as we ruthlessly separated her from her prize.

But a hilarity inducing twenty minutes later, the un-swallowed lizard was deposited back in the garden. It scuttled off into the grass, seemingly none the worse for its harrowing adventure.

And I thought... well, at least now I have a story for my newsletter.