In the hallway of our apartment, there is an intake vent low to the ground with a grating in front of it. We noticed one morning that our cat, Maccabee, was overly attentive to the vent, and I went to investigate why. As far as I could see, there was nothing unusual in the vent. I focused on the corner of the grating where Mackie was looking, and I saw a piece of wire sticking up. At least, I thought it looked like a wire. There didn’t seem to be room for anything else in there. But, I suppose it could have been the tail of a mouse. I wasn’t sure, so I got a pen and poked at the “wire.” Nothing. It didn’t move at all. It was just a wire. So I removed the grating and reached to pull the “wire” out… and it ran! It wasn't a wire! It was a tail! And it belonged to a lizard! The lizard was maybe only five inches long, but it was so unexpected that it startled us.

I jumped. Sarah screamed. Monkey’s eyes grew huge. And Mackie lunged. “Mackie! No!” I yelled, and I grabbed him as the lizard made a run for it. Mackie fought free of my grip and pursued the lizard behind the bedroom door. A moment later, he came out from behind the door… with the lizard in his mouth! “Mackie! No!” I yelled again, and grabbed Mackie once more as he dropped the lizard. We managed to close Mackie off in a bedroom as I set about capturing the now traumatized but still alive lizard. I found a box, but I was unable to lure the lizard into it. So I had to take the lizard by the tail (“please don’t let the tail fall off…”), and put it in the box. Having done so, I took the box outside and released the lizard. At first, he didn’t move and I thought perhaps Mackie had killed him, but a little poke from me, and the lizard shook off his shock and ran away into the bushes, undoubtedly to share the story of his adventure with his little lizard friends.

Posted: 8/20/04