Today we found a new mouth to feed in our house. It wasn't a welcomed guest nor was it a paying tenant. It was a lizard that freaked me out. Call me a wuss but seeing a long lizard tail whipping out from under your TV console (while watching TV) is worse than seeing a mouse in your house. Air Boss spotted the reptile seconds before me and he saw the thing scurry across the kitchen floor to the family room and under the TV console.
After we sent the kids upstairs, Air Boss and I, each of us armed with a box and some cooking utensil as our weapon of choice, we captured the lizard. Actually, it was really Air Boss who scared the lizard into the box while I scared myself silly while jumping up and down chanting, "He better not run over my bare feet or else I'm gonna scream!"
With the box taped up and placed outside on our patio table, we tried to figure out "what next?" Meanwhile, I felt extremely nervous as I hear the scratching noises inside and saw the box move incrementally closer and closer to the edge of the table. We spent the next 15 minutes getting the lizard out of the box and into a jar. That thing was so quick and so long, he pushed his way out of the jar (while standing on his tail) before we could screw on the lid. Air Boss ran around the yard with the jar trying to corner the thing again while I continued my ridiculous chant of "That thing better not touch me or I'm gonna scream!" [meanwhile, I had no idea that I was already screaming]
Well fast-forward to a few hours and one Home Depot trip later (Air Boss ran out to purchase door bottom sweeps for both our front and back doors to prevent lizard cousins and cohorts from treating our home like a motel), we had our friends the H family over for dinner.
The kids were fascinated with the lizard thing. I had looked up photos on Google and the closest match I could find was the Coastal Western Whiptail. No wonder the thing is called a Whiptail - the tail is longer than the body and it can flick it faster than you can yell "I'm gonna scream!" We all noticed that the tail was so strong. The lizard kept "standing upright " on it's tail.
Anyway, the H family gracious took the lizard off our hands and released it in a nearby park on their way back home. We didn't know that their son had already formed a strong attachment to the reptile and sobbed all the way to the park, at the park, on the way home, and at home. CH, thanks for taking good care of the lizard and doing what was best for your reptilian friend.
In the meantime, here is a photo of the lizard doing its best "Geico" pose:
2 comments:
ugh! Well, at least you weren't asleep on the floor and then wake up to find that tail whipping you in the face! I would be screaming too yelling all kinds of commands to catch it without doing anything to help the process!
oh gross. I've had mice in my apartment and I have to say that lizards are probably worse than them, except I hate the whole collapsible body thing. I do have to say that the bats last summer (it cost us $700 to seal up our home from them) were probably my worst fear imagined when it comes to invasions of the animal kind. good job capturing the thing!!!!! :)
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