The Lizard

A few days ago, I noticed a critter scuttle under some pots in the storage room of our basement. One of the lizards that normally hung out outside had found its way into our house. I wasn't too concerned. I figured it might do some good eating unwelcome bugs. (This is in stark contrast to the one time I ever remember 'screaming like a girl'... for the story, you might need to ask my friend and former roommate, Christi, about that one. I still turn red with embarrassment thinking about it...)

This morning, I threw some random things in the wash: a pillow, a pair of Joe's underwear, a shower curtain, and a bath mat. (Can you tell where this is headed?) Of course, when spin cycle hit, there was terrible knocking as the washer tried to free itself from utility imprisonment. I opened up the lid to rearrange the load, and to my great (ahem) surprise, there was a lizard clinging desperately to the side of the drum.

I didn't know what to do, so I went upstairs and got Reanna. I watched as she went to poke it with her finger, and felt somewhat better about myself as she jump sky-high when the lizard suddenly ran to hide under Joe's underwear. We looked around and found an oatmeal canister, and I went about emptying the washer in hopes that we could coerce the lizard into the can. Unfortunately, the lizard decided the underside of the agitator looked like a better hiding place.

Now what to do? I pressed in the button to start the drum spinning, hoping the lizard would come sliding out. No luck. Then I figured if I filled it up with some water, it wouldn't want to drown and would come out of its own volition. No luck. I didn't want a dead lizard stuck under the agitator, so I hit the spin cycle again to drain the water, and hoped it might get slung out with the water. Still no luck. At this point, I wasn't to anxious to see what might have happened to the poor thing, so thought I'd wait until Chris got home to dismantle the washer.

Of course, my curiosity wouldn't rest, so whenever I happened by, I would peek in to see what I could see. Finally, I caught the lizard sneaking back out. I couldn't believe the sucker wasn't dead. Unfortunately, it still preferred the agitator to my oatmeal canister. I consulted my toolbox and removed the agitator; and the lizard finally realized that the smart thing to do was to crawl into my 'trap'.

We released it on the far side of the garage. May it have a long and less traumatic life.