A rescue worthy of Animal Planet...

As I was taking out the trash this evening, I noticed a 6" lizard hanging on the wall in the garage. "Poor little guy," I thought. He can't live for more than a day or two in the hot garage.

He must have scampered in when the garage door was up. I went over to size up the situation, and he ran up the wall and positioned himself in the crease just below the ceiling. There was no way I could reach him up there.

Time to put my great Macgyver skills, and animal know-how to work to rescue him!

Tools:

• one five-gallon bucket
• one long pool noodle
• one large towel.

If you know anything about lizards, you know they can break all land speed records and adhere to just about any vertical surface except glass. Many times I've witnessed a startled lizard go zooming across the side of the house only to encounter a window and then WHUMP! fall to the ground. I was going to use this knowledge to save this little guy's life.

Armed with my gear, I took the pool noodle and tapped the wall behind him. He skittered about four inches. Tap, tap. Skitter. Tap, tap. Skitter. I carefully guided him toward the window.

When he was just inches from its wide, smooth expanse, he tried to go around. Clearly, this guy knew all about window whumping, but to escape the big foam thumper, he had no choice but to skitter onto the glass. In that split second that he went airborne, I caught him in the five-gallon bucket. He landed with the usual whump, and I covered the bucket with the big towel to keep him from evicting himself from it with a vertical leap.

I opened up the garage door, walked about 20 feet away (I didn't want him scampering in again!) and released him back into the desert. Time elapsed: Five minutes. The feeling afterwards: Priceless.
Copyright © Deborah A. Ayers - All rights reserved.