Operation Gecko Rescue
...
Martha came up with a brilliant plan for evicting our unhappy-looking gecko friend from Anne's kitchen.
We climbed up onto Anne's counters and I brandished the rubber spatula, while Martha held the cardboard box. With a minimum of fuss, Mister Gecko was relocated to the great outdoors.
He looks much better outside than in, don't you think?
Martha came up with a brilliant plan for evicting our unhappy-looking gecko friend from Anne's kitchen.
We climbed up onto Anne's counters and I brandished the rubber spatula, while Martha held the cardboard box. With a minimum of fuss, Mister Gecko was relocated to the great outdoors.
He looks much better outside than in, don't you think?
Comments
They're funky-looking guys aren't they?
Oh-la-la!
I would have liked to see a photo of you guys on the counter with spatula in hand, with some one else on hand, holding a pot to put the gecko in. Then you could have entitled the photo "Catching dinner, the French way!"
Since you already went into a description of how the locals will eat anything they catch, I surmised this applied to kitchen geckos as well. What A gastromical feast!
Please dont bring any pickled gecko back. Customs would never allow it.
Annalisa
Apparently the correct name for this in France is actually "frogs' paws."
Me, I kept frogs as pets as a child, and am totally disinclined to eat my childhood companions.
I just have always like the 2 "k"s together better, I guess.
I don't think I'd be brave enough to try eating geckos, no matter how they're prepared. Eeeuw! I know the French eat escargot, but gecko?...
I had 4 room mates while working in the middle east, years and years ago. 3 of us were basically normal people, and the 4th of us was a TAD OBSESSIVE about control issues. Well, the local geckos must have smelled this in her nature, because they gravitated to her room and would cling to her white walls. Well, geckos cant TURN white, unless they are albino, right?
So she would usually commence each day by screaming when she spotted a gecko. (She had this irrational fear of them falling into her mouth when she fell asleep, she said. This also from the room mate who woke us all up one early am to lecture on 6 cucumber seeds she found in the sink drain. I'm not kidding.)
Anyway, back to the gecko- a fellow co-worker of ours had been over that night for dinner, heard the screams and ran to her room. When he saw what made her freak out, Mr HELPFUL immediately began to smack at the fast moving Mr Gecko with his hands, trying to catch or kill it. I couldn't tell which. We had all gathered around to watch the show at this point. With an almost connecting smack, Mr Gecko ran free, leaving his severed tail stuck to the wall itself, right over my room mates bed, wriggling spasmatiocally and uncontrollably.
She proceeded to loose her mind and scream uncontrollably, thus provoking the neighbors to call the police. Now, I dont know about YOUR town, but Israeli police are fully armed soldiers with machine guns. I started to laugh hysterically at this point, in the very crowded room, with the wriggling tail on the wall, the room mates and dinner guests, and the irate security guards with their heavy weaponry going on in Hebrew about the "insane American girl". The room mate threw her stuff in a bag and left the apartment that same evening for a new living situation, but not before calling all of us "degenerates."
It was a brilliant evening.
So, it is with great fondness in my heart that I celebrate your freed "Mosieur Gecko" (Ack! What spelling!), as it reminds me of how we came to meet our new 4th room mate, who to this day is still a great friend of mine, and whose 2 kids love all sorts of lizard-type creatures!
The end.
Annalisa
Annalisa, what a great story! How could you NOT laugh at the absurdity of that?! Bra-VO on the telling, and three cheers for kids who love all kids of critters.
When I was a kid I always wished I had a tail. To have a tail that could be left behind and re-grow a new one would have been immeasurably cool!
Last week there was a gorgeous spider on the wall. My roommate came at Spidey with a shoe, while I fended her off, screaming, "You can't kill him! He's a top predator! You'll upset the entire ecosystem!"
Ok, so perhaps I was being a bit dramatic. Eventually I found a plastic tub and an envelope and relocated the spider.
Annalisa, I don't know you, but I'll never forget you. GREAT story.
My DH and I were on our honeymoon and we were staying in these really cool thatched roof bungalows right on the beach. Our next door neighbor was really loud so we were up late one night and had finally gotten to the point when we were about ready to fall asleep when I heard a loud (and close) "Thwack!" My DH sat straight up in bed and yelled really loud. I thought what the heck? He said something landed smack in the middle of his forehead.
It turns out that the thwack in the night was the gecko because we found the tail in the general area where my DH tossed the thing that fell on his head.
The next morning I was taking a leisurely shower and turned to wash the shampoo out of my hair... and there was a tail-less gecko hanging out in the shower with me.
That was an adventure that I will not soon forget!