So quite a few years ago, upon returning from a vacation, one of my besties, L, gifted me with a metal lizard similar to the one above, but much brighter, and generally way more awesome (this picture is just to give you an idea, as the original is at the Huckleberry House!). So I really like the gift lizard and keep it on my dresser, which I think concerns my mama a wee bit. But I love it so it stays!
Previous to living in NOLA, the gift metal lizard was about the extent of my involvement with the species. Then, 333 sometimes had a bit of a lizard invasion, so I had done some lizard removal there, where we discovered that really the quickest, most humane, and effective method of removal of the creatures was to vacuum them up in the hand-held vacuum, run outside, open the vacuum and corresponding bag, and the lizard would happily go along its way in the big outside world. Interestingly, the preferred escape route from the bag to the outside world generally involved some part of the lizard rescuers body, usually a hand or arm, but on one specific occasion I recall, a face was involved! So it was a bit traumatic every time we had to remove a lizard, but we had a pretty good method worked out and were practically professional lizard removers.
So this lovely Sunday morning I awoke feeling a bit poorly: stuffy head, stuffy nose, raspy throat, achy throat, itchy eyes...you know the feeling :( I had been noticing people around campus feeling poorly, but I'm pretty sure my current ailment is a little treat from one of my tutorees, B, who definitely had my current symptoms when I saw her last, sitting in my lap as I read to her... Anyways, no matter the cause, I am feeling a bit down on the health front, so I decided to stay home from church and hopefully magically recover! My sistah got her gorgeous self ready and out the door and I returned to sleep. I awoke a bit later having a feeling. You know the feeling you get when you can feel eyes resting upon you? I immediately dismissed this notion, my sistah was gone, so there was nobody else who could be looking at me, and so decided it was a relic of yesterday's events, rolled over to return to sleep. Upon the rollover, this is what I gazed upon.
On my pillow
Next to my head
I'm pretty sure I screamed about then. I must have done something because suddenly, my visitor was ON THE MOVE!!! Oh no, this is the key action you want to avoid when trying to catch a lizard. Movement by the creature bodes very poorly for the human attempting to capture. Oh gosh, not how I thought today would begin! I chased it off of the bed and then called in reinforcements. As soon as said reinforcement arrived, I realized I probably had called the incorrect reinforcer. After the reinforcer arrived, I experienced a sense of deja vu, to another lizard, at 333, and the same reinforcer, refusing to use the vacuum method, preferring instead a "more humane" way of dealing with the creature, which basically just lasted all day while the vacuum could have caught and released it in about 5 minutes. But it was too late at that point, the reinforcer had arrived. And really, at times like these, the most important aspect of reinforcement is the moral support in your mutual efforts to capture the creature.
Today's lizard was a pretty slick one, and for being pretty big (about 7 inches including tail length!) he sure could hunker down and hide out! After exploring pretty much every area in the apartment, the visitor decided to pause for a break. Luckily for us silly humans trying to catch him, the lizard chose to take his break on the broom, so we were able to lift the broom out of the apartment and outside, only losing him once in the entryway!
So it was a pretty eventful morning! But you know, I do feel a little better, so maybe all of the lizard excitement was just what I needed-perhaps I have discovered the cure for the common cold!
