The Slag Pile and the resident lizard

So it is still slow going fixing up my dad's gun shop, and I forgot to take my camera(!) last time I went to work on the shop. But I gotta tell ya scraping the slag pile off the floor really wasn't all that exciting, or photo worthy. But! I thought I might tell you about the resident lizard. I went in one time and T om thought he saw a rat, but I had already seen the lizard a few times by then, this time I saw him he was definitely bigger, I guess hes been eating well there in the shop. He about 7" long from nose to tail, He is what my dad called a mountain boomer, I will have to do some research but he is not a Gecko, the latest non-resident species to get to Texas. Geckos are cute and s shaped on the screens and eat bugs and all, but they are not these desert lizards.
I remember lots of horny toads around when i was a kid, easy to catch and they would sit in your hand and look at you with those tiny black eyes in their dinosaur heads all tiny and pocket sized. My dad told me when i asked him where they had all gone, that the red ants gotem. A friend recently told me that they ate the big red ants that the fire ants have edged out, and the horny toads wont eat them, so in effect I guess he was right. An eco system is a delicate thing...
I bring up the horny toads, cause they look a lot alike, deserty colors and little spikes all down their backs, but the horny toads had bigger spikes, similar looking tho i guess.
Anyway back to my friend the mountain boomer, it had been cool, so he wasn't moving at all and he was covered with spider webs, he let me pull some off them off, Its gotta be weird to be a cold blooded creature and not be able to move when huge critters are pulling junk off you.
When i was in high school I had a run-in with a mountain boomer. I used to catch the bus to Harper high school at my dad's gun shop. One cold morning there was a HUGE lizard on the porch, I swear it was at least 18" and maybe more like 24". It looked like it might spring on me and go for the jugular if i went anywhere close to him, so I kept my distance. I had my back to him and there was a loud *crack* and i looked up and saw the grass making waves like a motorboat had just gone by.
My friend who told me about the horny toads and the fire ants also told me that these lizards run on their hind legs, I'm sorry i missed it...
So I asked my daughter what we should name it and she said Tavros. So Tavros the resident Lizard. If hes around I'm going to take a picture. Maybe i should find him some ants.