I opened the pantry yesterday morning to check and see if there was anything else we needed before we went shopping and found myself staring at a small beady pair of eyes.
There was a lizard in the pantry.
We have no idea how long he'd been in there, but Nyala was chasing something in there the other day. We figured, in hindsight, that it was the lizard. That dude either made it from the porch, which was a hell of a run with two cats in the house, or from the garage, an equally perilous, but much shorter dash.
My first try to catch him was unsuccessful as he darted in behind the spaghetti sauce and the mushrooms, so we left him to explore the pantry while we went shopping. Most everything in there is in ziplocks and we didn't figure he could do much harm. Besides the girls would keep him cornered.
When we got back from shopping, Edward opened the pantry to the same pair of eyes, from the same place on the shelf as I discovered him. Again he disappeared behind the condiments.
As Edward started putting things away he jumped down a shelf. I grabbed a tupperware container thinking I could perhaps get it to drop into that. As I moved the container in he bolted forward and I snatched at him, first missing, then snagging his tail. One quick move more and I had him in the tupperware, still holding his tail and covering the rest of the top with my other hand. "Got him! Um, a little help here. Could you get the door?"
I set him down outside the front door and he scurried away, looking back and looking confused. It isn't the first time I've caught a lizard, but it was the first one I've ever seen in the pantry. Maybe he'll tell his friends that we're a lizard friendly house. Mostly. I don't think he ever saw the girls. Either way, I hope he tells his buddies that, friendly or not, it's not cool to hang out in the big guy's house, cause getting caught doesn't usually have such a happy ending.
