EDMONTON JOURNAL (Alberta) 09 September 06 Lost pet reptile trades cold tree for warm love - Rescue saves classroom mascot from deadly fall chill
Edmonton: Spike the wandering iguana has come out of the cold and is back in the safety of her cage after nearly a week of freedom in a west-end neighbourhood.
"It's pretty good news and when I told the kids in the class they all cheered," teacher David London said Friday shortly after learning the 1.5-metre female reptile had been recaptured.
"She must have had quite the adventure."
London, who teaches Grade 3-4 students at Brightview elementary school, was caring for the class mascot for the summer when it wriggled out of a harness in his backyard last Saturday and disappeared.
London delivered about 50 flyers to homes in the Wolf Willow area where he lives and by Sunday, a small army of neighbours searched for the iguana.
Spike's rescue began in the early afternoon, when a neighbour spotted the iguana across the street about a half-block down from London's home.
Alanna Bencharsky, London's stepdaughter, said her brother, Alex, had just come home from school when he came running into the house shouting: "The neighbour found the iguana, the neighbour found the iguana."
Joined by some of Alex's friends, a letter carrier, and a handful of neighbours, the two ran down the street where Spike had climbed halfway up a spruce tree.
One neighbour brought a cardboard box and Alex got some gloves. After several attempts, he was able to grab the frightened and defensive reptile.
"We tried many times but that thing whipped its tail around and was clawing and trying to bite," Alanna said. "It was a big ordeal."
In a stroke of good luck, the last week's warm weather was suitable for keeping the cold-blooded tropical animal alive. If temperatures had dipped any closer to the freezing mark it may have succumbed to the cold or developed serious respiratory problems.
Iguanas require 30-degree temperatures to stay healthy, Lynn Thompson of the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society said this week. The normal nighttime temperature for this time of year is 4 C but has been closer to 9 C this week.
London plans to have the normally placid iguana back at school Monday, where it keeps warm by lying on a computer.
"She seems to be OK," Alanna said. "She's just a little scared."
Rescue saves classroom mascot from deadly fall chill