Lizard, Lizard, Go Away

Well, it finally happened.

After seven months of living in Orlando, always watching my steps and keeping doors and windows shut, a lizard has snuck into our apartment.

It looks as though it is a small brown anole, presumably female, and seemingly young. I feel horrible about it - I don't have a clue about what to do. It showed up last Wednesday while I was working at my computer.

Naveen had the day off and was playing Halo 3, and all of a sudden he shouted my name - I turned around, saw that he was looking at the floor, and when I looked down, this tiny little thing was looking back up at us and darted under our dishwasher in a flash. She (or he) has been there ever since. I've had small boxes lying around just in case I could catch it and get it outside, but I haven't had the chance. For the first day or so, I left a bottlecap full of water and a few spinach leaves on the floor near the dishwasher, hoping the little "guy" would come out. I didn't see it the rest of that day, but I saw it the following morning, standing motionless behind the stray leaves, as if frozen when I came into the room, and then scooted right back under its safe haven. It's been almost a week since I've seen it, and assumed it might have died or found a crack in the foundation to escape through - I even removed the water and spinach leaves.

But most unfortunately, I saw it again tonight as a dishwasher cycle was finishing. I heard the "click" of the dry cycle winding to a stop, and turned around to unload the dishes, and there she was, looking confusedly at the cabinets and walls around it. By now it must be so very hungry - unless it has managed to find any small bugs that might have snuck past us. I feel terrible - from the beginning I wanted to capture it and take it back outdoors, but it is so fast and tiny that I doubt that will happen. Either it will starve underneath my dishwasher, or we'll have to throw something at it or set traps for it, which doesn't appeal to me. I like lizards a lot - especially because they keep our nasty bug population down - so it's really sad knowing one is trapped inside our apartment and too scared to venture out more than a few inches into the kitchen.

I'm out of spinach as of this weekend, but I put another cap full of water down, just in case. If anyone has any ideas to help me avoid this poor thing's cruel death, I'd appreciate it.