As I opened the door this morning to leave the apt and head to work, I woke up and scared the bejabbers out of a little baby gecko. He did what anyone would have done in that situation: he jumped! Fortunately/unfortunately he jumped ON me. I tried to corral him, but he ran up my shirt, jumped onto the neckband of my headphones and ran over my collar and into my shirt. I could feel him on my back, but I couldn't reach him AND I was late for work, so I left him there.

While I was scooting to work, I could feel him wriggling around against my back, but then he just stopped, chilled out and enjoyed the ride.

Once I got here, I went upstairs to my work area, and there were only two people around, thankfully both of the male persuasion, no panicky females. I asked R if he could take a look down the back of my shirt and see if he could see a lizard. He thought I was joking at first, but then laughed and looked and said no, there's nothing there. I went downstairs to the lunchroom and took off my shirt to see if he was in there, and he wasn't. That meant he was inside my undershirt (yes, I wear an undershirt even when it's 30c out) or worse, down my pants.

The CEO walked in just then and saw me dancing around in my undershirt and had a perplexed look on my face. When I explained that I had a baby lizard in there somewhere, he just laughed. Eventually I was in the bathroom with my undershirt off looking in the mirror and hoping that I remembered to lock the door. No lizard was to be found. At that point, I started to undo my pants...

I unbuckled my belt, undid the button and unzipped. I checked my waistband area... nothing... I gave my pants a shake, and I felt something hit my shoe. I looked down to see the little guy wriggling down my boot and jumped onto the wall from my toe. He started running up the wall so I corraled him and caught him in my hand. I went back to the lunch room to find a suitable container to keep him in for the day so I could take him home and release him near my front door where I found him.

It's the least I can do, geckos help keep the mosquito population down, they're not poisonous and they don't bite. Most importantly, there's probably a Gecko Amber Alert goin down on Seven Mile Beach and this little guy probably has a mama gecko that's crying her unblinking little eyes out right about now. I'll try and get a picture of him before I let him go and post it up here later.