Mephi is back!!

For those of you who don't know, my husband has had an iquana for the last 14 1/2 years. He raised him from a hatchling (about 5 inches long) to full size (about 3 1/2 feet long). He disappeared the day after Bill and the girls birthday BBQ and hadn't been seen since (or so we thought.) We scoured the trees all around us, but didn't seen a sign of him. Being that he's never lived on his own, and that there are a lot of raccoons, oppossums, rats, and ferrel cats in the neighborhood we thought that he might not survive.

2 days ago, our next door neighbor mentioned that she had talked to our back fence neighbor (his yard spans 3 of ours) and he said that there was a lizard that had taken to hanging out by his pool during the day. She thought of us and flagged Bill down to tell him. Bill immediately went over and talked to our neighbor who confirmed what he had been told. Bill left him his cell phone number for when he spotted him again. Well today was that day. I was at Safeway with the girls when I received a desperate call from Bill that Mephi was sunning himself by the pool again (Bill was in SF so couldn't get there.) I checked out quick, loaded the girls back in the car, cruised by the house to pick up a towel (he has sharp claws), a box to put him in, and Stacey to watch the girls while I tried to catch Mephi.

I thought that I was going to have to chase him, but actually he looked quite relieved to see me. I walked over and picked him up with the towel. I tried to put him in the box so I could get him home, but he would have none of that. At that point, I was glad I had the towel with me. Once I held him back up to my shoulder he calmed down, so I walked through the neighbors back yard to ours and brought him into the house while the neighbor went to tell Stacey to drive the car back around to our house. He is now happily situated in our bathroom with some water and a dish of blueberries. Welcome home Mephi.

Now I need to figure out an appropriate thank you gift for our neighbor (He's in his 90's). If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.