PIONEER PRESS (St Paul, Minnesota) 17 June 06 Footloose lizard home at last - Firefighter cared for 'Leon' a block away (Nick Ferraro)
Leaping lizards, "Leon" is home.
The pet veiled chameleon is back in his cage after being on the loose in a Woodbury neighborhood for more than a month and a half. Owner Bruce Lindberg, a dentist, was reunited with Leon on Monday after Woodbury firefighter Becky Watters brought the lizard to his office, Oakdale Family Dentistry.
Watters had been caring for the lizard since June 1, when it was caught about a block and a half from Lindberg's Woodbury house.
Lindberg had last seen Leon on April 16, when the creature apparently escaped through an open screen door while Lindberg was taking an afternoon nap on his living room couch. After several failed searches, Lindberg figured the lizard had fallen victim to cold temperatures, or worse yet, an owl or lawn mower.
"I had given up on him long ago," said Lindberg, who bought the lizard as a baby in 2001.
But a Woodbury couple spotted the foot-long creature in the 1100 block of Autumn Drive and trapped it with a garbage can. "They said it was just walking down the middle of the street," said Watters, who responded to the call with a community service officer.
Lindberg's receptionist read about the capture in the police blotter in Sunday's Pioneer Press and brought the newspaper to work Monday. The item read: "Found lizard: A woman who lives in the 1100 block of Autumn Drive reported about 2:45 p.m. June 1 that a lizard was in her yard. A police officer and firefighter caught the lizard, which was about a foot long. After the Humane Society for Companion Animals refused to accept the lizard, the firefighter agreed to take it home and care for it."
Lindberg said his receptionist "handed me the paper and said, 'Don't you live really close to Autumn Drive?'
"I thought, 'He can't possibly be around,' " he said. "Then I realized that there probably aren't too many lizards on the loose in Woodbury."
The firefighter mentioned in the blotter item was Watters, who owned a veiled chameleon herself for five years. She spoke to Lindberg over the phone Monday and arranged the homecoming.
Watters said when she walked into the dental office with Leon "the whole office lit up."
"I was swarmed by the receptionist and dental assistants," she said. "They said, 'It's Leon! Look, it's totally Leon!' "
Lindberg said it's hard to believe the lizard is back. "We've been walking around here shaking our heads all day," he said Monday.
Lindberg said he had a dream Sunday night — before he knew the lizard had been recovered — in which he found Leon inside a curio cabinet in his house.
"I hated to lose him," he said. "I missed him, actually."
Footloose lizard home at last