The Lizards’ Lonely Hearts Club

I guess our home has been designated as the local Lizards’ Lonely Hearts Club. Or refuge. Or sanctuary. Hmm, maybe resort is more applicable. Lizards just keep showing up and some have needed some TLC.

And by the way, I have to give Gina credit for the club’s name!

We’ve been doing reptile rescue for many years and have experience with many different species. But most of the time, the lizards need help getting to our place. A driver at least. But now apparently the lizards are finding their way on their own. Interesting.

About three years ago we had a six foot long adult male iguana show up on our back wall. We don’t have a fence; instead we have a six foot tall concrete block wall and the top is perfect for lizard basking. Apparently this iguana thought it was a great place to be. Our neighbors behind us weren’t so happy, though, and called animal control. Animal control was more than happy to let me take charge of him and we soon found a new home for him.

Our back yard has a number of native alligator lizards and fence lizards but they do well on their own. That is, as long as I can keep the dogs from catching them. Because of that, I provide hiding places and cover for them. I don’t think that’s so odd; after all, the little guys catch a lot of bugs.

Last summer a leopard gecko, definitely not a native species, wandered into our garage. We caught him to check him over and he was fine. Fat, sassy, with lots of attitude so we let him go where we found him – in our garage. We’ve seen him several times since then and he appears to be smart enough to stay hidden so the dogs don’t see him. Hopefully he’s keeping the spider population low.

In November we found a Tokay gecko in the side yard. She was cold so we caught her – not without some difficulty – and she’s in the house. Since she had lived outside previously we’ll set her up with an outside cage once the weather is better. I’m not going to turn her loose because she’s not a native species and I’m sure as aggressive as she is she could cause havoc with the native lizards. If we set her up with a nice outside cage she should be fine.

This week a native lizard needed some help. We’re redoing our side yard and having concrete poured to extend our patio. Paul was picking up some chunks of broken concrete and in the pile found a juvenile alligator lizard. Poor little guy was very cold, thin, and not at all feisty. These lizards aren’t as aggressive as Tokays are but will bite if they’re caught. This little guy didn’t. So into a small terrarium he went, with heat under it and above it, and some water. When he warmed up I dug up some red worms and earthworms for him.  I’ll fatten him up and then when the weather warms up let him go.

Photo credit: Tokay gecko (top) and alligator lizard (bottom). Photos by Liz Palika

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