A few days ago, my friend found a common house lizard in his kitchen sink. It didn’t move when he clapped loudly right next to it. It didn’t even budge when he poured water on it and poked it with a spoon. Just stayed put for two whole days, as though it was dead. Finally, my friend decided to chuck it out. He got a pair of chopsticks and tried to pick it up. Voila! The dead lizard suddenly came back to life and scuttled away somewhere.
Fast-forward to today, and one of the selfsame critters is currently recumbent on my kitchen floor. It has been for the last 3 hours. I’ve flung a tumbler of water at it. I’ve nudged it a few times with a broom. I’ve rolled an onion right at it. I’ve gotten on my knees and prayed for it to go away (why yes, I am a weenie!). Nothing doing. It just lies there.
I know it’s alive and waiting to jump at me the second I get the guts to actually go near it. Damn lizard.
Questions: Do all lizards do this? Why, if yes? And, most importantly, what can I do to make it go away?! I need to start cooking dinner!
At least it’s a real animal that could conceivably deliver a tiny (harmless) nip. Yesterday I witnessed the IT tech at my office (who I think hails from the same Lah Lah Land) refuse to touch a computer until someone removed the plastic fly-in-an-icecube that was sitting on the monitor. Creeped her right out.
Actually, it isn’t the possibility of being bitten that scares me. It’s that geckos are ugly and creepy and crawly and brown and sqooshy and generally oogy.
Anyway, turns out my lizard was dead. Only, it crawled to the center of my kitchen before leaving this earthly plane. I guess that was more considerate than popping off somewhere at the back of my kitchen storeroom behind all the jars, anyway.
Mods, unless there are reasons other than a drop in temperature for why lizards suddenly become sluggish, feel free to consider this thread over and done with.
Thank you all for responding!
I don’t at all get what NutMagnet is on about, and all I have to say to mks57 is -
Actually, aankh, I am interested in the gecko that stood still for two whole days. I am assuming that was also in Singapore, so could something else have been in play besides body temperature?
