topic My Wildlife Adventure in Community Chat

My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:03:01 GMT

I am taking care of my friend's pool while they are on vacation. As a perk, I get to float around a bit while I am there.

I drifted over by the skimmer basket and I could see something in there. Sometimes animals get stuck and you have to get the poor dead creature out.

From what little I could see, it looked reptile. Praying it wasn't a snake I pried the cover off. No rattling--good!

Inside, floating was a big, pink and black lizard. I poked it with end of the pool skimmer and it was alive.

Something told me not to pick it up with my hands. I got him out and he slowly crawled away into a rock pile.

When i got home, i Googled him and it was a freaking Gila Monster! The only venomous lizard in Arizona. When they bite, they won't let go. They are very rare and protected. Few people ever see one.

I feel good for saving him and REALLY good for listening to my inner voice not to pick him up with my bare hands.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Citrine1 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:11:28 GMT

Yikes. Reading your post was freaking me out. My dog's tail just brushed against my bare foot and I almost jumped out of my skin. LOL Geez, we just don't get things like that here in Philly. The idea of a snake or lizard in my pool scares the poo out of me!

Glad you are safe @Ms tyrion2 !

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

on the bay — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:28:57 GMT

Wow! That is a wildlife adventure!😬

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:42:31 GMT

@Citrine1 wrote:
Yikes. Reading your post was freaking me out. My dog's tail just brushed against my bare foot and I almost jumped out of my skin. LOL Geez, we just don't get things like that here in Philly. The idea of a snake or lizard in my pool scares the poo out of me!

Glad you are safe @Ms tyrion2 !

@Citrine1 ,

I am pretty fearless when it comes to reptiles.

Now, big bugs? They practically bring me to my knees with fear.

We all have something. 😁

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

fthunt — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:48:40 GMT

@Citrine1 Dog's tail............I can't stop laughing. I can so relate and......I'm still laughing. I would have left that lizard in there until it died - dead died and let the pool owner handle it. LOL No lizard hero saver here!

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:51:10 GMT

@fthunt wrote:
@Citrine1 Dog's tail............I can't stop laughing. I can so relate and......I'm still laughing. I would have left that lizard in there until it died - dead died and let the pool owner handle it. LOL No lizard hero saver here!

I couldn't do that @fthunt .

Besides feeling bad about a truly beautiful and rare animal, the pool cleaning system wouldn't work correctly with it in there.

I had to suck it up and do it.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

fthunt — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:55:50 GMT

@Ms tyrion2 Okay - but you didn't know he was rare until Google. That being said - a lizard is a lizard - Congratulations on removing him without getting hurt. Me - No dice. chipmunk = another story

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:58:39 GMT

@fthunt wrote:
@Ms tyrion2 Okay - but you didn't know he was rare until Google. That being said - a lizard is a lizard - Congratulations on removing him without getting hurt. Me - No dice. chipmunk = another story

Ok. Got it.

I look at it as rare is rare. That didn't change because I didn't know it at the time.

🦎🦎🦎

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Kachina624 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:00:23 GMT

@Ms tyrion2. You'd better ask for lifetime pool privileges when your friend returns. I wonder if the poor soggy gila monster has made it back to his desert home yet? Most people probably live there a lifetime and never see one. Lucky you!

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

kdgn — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:03:22 GMT

I'd be okay with letting the lizard go but if it'd been a snake? One of us would be history-and it would be me making fast tracks out of there!

Glad you listened to your inner voice though and didn't touch him-

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Mary Bailey — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:32:37 GMT

the ONLY thing about deep freezes here

is all the stuff it kills!!

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:53:45 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
@Ms tyrion2. You'd better ask for lifetime pool privileges when your friend returns. I wonder if the poor soggy gila monster has made it back to his desert home yet? Most people probably live there a lifetime and never see one. Lucky you!

@Kachina624 ,

It looks like he lives in the rocks around my friend's water fountain. He bee lined for there as soon as he warmed up enough to walk.

We do live in the desert. My town is on the outskirts of the Phx metro area.

I do feel lucky to have come into contact with him.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Kachina624 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 04:03:08 GMT

@Ms tyrion2 I consider any brush with unusual wildlife ti be a treat, but I'm not sure I'd want a gila monster living in my back yard. I wonder if our fellow correspondents realize that they are the only poisonous lizard species living in North America?

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 04:25:14 GMT

I don't think they will be too worried. From what I read today, Gila monsters spend over 90% of their time deep in their burrows. They eat only 2 or 3 times per year.

They are not aggressive and will bite only if you agitate them. Like trying to pick them up. Most of the time they will run away. This guy was totally passive. I think he was slowed by the cool water. No way of knowing how long he was stuck in there.

He knew exactly where he was going to hide. He had to climb a low wall to get into the rocks. It took several trys for him to get up the wall.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

luvzchiz — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 04:39:05 GMT

@Ms tyrion2 Bless you for saving this poor creature. May Karma bring you good things.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Sadiesadie — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 15:33:49 GMT

@Ms tyrion2 : I couldn’t have left a living creature in there either.

I was skimming our pool one time and there was a small snake in the water. No way for me to tell if it was a rattler or gopher snake or what. As I walked around skimming it kept following me and looking up at me as though he was asking me to get him out.

I called my husband out to please get it. He scooped it out with the net and took it to the alley. It was a small rattler.

If he hadn’t been home I would have sucked it up and done it, cringing the whole time because I hate snakes

Just couldn’t leave him in there knowing he was a living creature and would die. We’re in Tucson.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

SharkE — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 15:39:18 GMT

@Citrine1 wrote:
Yikes. Reading your post was freaking me out. My dog's tail just brushed against my bare foot and I almost jumped out of my skin. LOL Geez, we just don't get things like that here in Philly. The idea of a snake or lizard in my pool scares the poo out of me!

Glad you are safe @Ms tyrion2 !

ROFLMBO cracked me up.

I remember back up in Ind. I had skylights in my house and a salamander

lizard some how got in my house I was on the couch and looked over at the sun spot on my hardwood floor and there was the lizard sunning himself at my expense.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Burnsite — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 17:25:11 GMT

Mysterion, a gila monster--yikes!

I have forgotten where, but when I had my patio screens repaired after a recent hurricane, I missed an opening somewhere. Never did fix it and had forgotten all about it but on Friday noticed that there was a crowd of uninvited and unhappy guests out there on the patio: a cardinal, two blue jays, and an owl.

The cardinal was rather calmly looking for the exit, the two bluejays were yelling at each other, and the owl, ignoring the birds, was gazing calmly but rather ominously down at me from his perch atop one of the fans. Hoping they could find their way out, I opened the patio door and also switched on a light, even though it was a bright morning. I read on the internet that they will go to the best-lighted area. The cardinal left immediately. The blue jays continued to fuss at each other for an hour. The owl was the last to leave.

Never want to harm the critters but sometimes it's hard to help them. It's really good you could help the gila monster without being hurt yourself. I didn't really like the expression on the owl's face--it looked a bit too comfortable with its new perch on the fan---but even she or he did eventually get out.

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

Ms tyrion2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 17:53:55 GMT

Great story @Burnsite .

You description of the birds' different reactions was priceless. 😁

Re: My Wildlife Adventure

luvzchiz — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 19:05:23 GMT

@Burnsite Loved your story. Were you able to get pictures?