Pillow Where The Gecko Was Resting

No, not the cute one in insurance commercials. One of the realities in living in a temperate climate is that geckos are everywhere in multiple sizes. Most aren’t over about four inches long and the baby ones are about the size of your fingernail. The special pads on their feet enable them to cling to all sorts of surfaces, to include deftly scampering upside down on ceilings. They are symbolic of the tropics and while they don’t seem to eat mosquitos, they do consume a lot of bugs. If you have an aversion to geckos, living in this  area can be tough. On the other hand, if you have cats, that can be tough on the gecko population. In any case, there is a high probability that they will periodically wind up inside your house. So, the other day when I looked down on the floor and saw a gecko, it wasn’t a big surprise. He wasn’t close enough to a door for me to shoo him out and I was on my way to take care of something and explained to the gecko that it really would be in his best interest to find his way back outside. I didn’t see him for a couple of days and then lo and behold, he’d found his way into the bedroom. Now, trying to catch a gecko isn’t as easy as you might think and I didn’t have time to deal with it. I warned hubby when he came home that evening that it could be anywhere at that point. There’s nothing quite like reaching for an article of clothing and having a gecko scurry out from the pile.

We sit in the bed every morning having coffee and watching TV and I always put the decorative pillow behind my regular pillow. I usually leave it there during the day and remove it when I am getting ready for bed. Keeping the previous gecko sighting in mind, I gingerly pulled away the pillow and sure enough, the gecko was snoozing peacefully in the crease of the decorative pillow. Ah, a natural “net” if I could move quickly. I silently left the room and opened the door to the back yard so that I would be able to cover the distance between the bed and the door rapidly. All set! I executed the move perfectly and the gecko had barely raised his head to see what was going on before he was deposited outside. That took care of that until we get the next one. And in the spirit of such, pop over to my website and read the short story, A Gecko in the Umbrella.