Lagartijas

Adela on interspecies relations. The paragraph that particularly caught my eye and made me smile, since it combines two different things I like (I am fonder of lizards than Adela is--and in fact I have often since wondered if the amazing and quite huge boa constrictor called Mr. B. who lived in the elementary-school science classroom where I helped take care of the animals when I was a little kid might have been named by someone who had read Richardson's Pamela!):

I've never really understood why anyone would want a pet boa mainly because I have yet to develop a relationship with reptiles. I generally do not like them except as momentary curiosities, like lizards when they do push-ups in the sun. As a child I got to see lots of lizards exercising while they caught some rays since my parents' garden was, and still is, a nice haven for them. In Spanish, push-ups are actually called "lizards" (lagartijas) and I was thrilled when I realized this was not a purely arbitrary name but actually referenced what lizards do when they push up and down.