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WINNPEG FREE PRESS (Manitoba) 05 September 03 Lizard in toilet not doing backstroke (Thana Dharmarajah)
Brandon: Gwen Arnold was petrified to find a nine-inch salamander swimming in her toilet bowl. "It was so scary," says the Brandon school teacher.
"I didn't look too closely. It was moving so I didn't bond too long."
Arnold returned this week from her summer vacation at Clear Lake and was putting away items in her bathroom when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the black reptile covered in yellow spots in her toilet bowl.
Her automatic reaction was to get out of the bathroom.
But she returned to ensure her imagination wasn't getting out of hand.
"By this time it had moved out of the water and was sitting up near the seat," remembers Arnold.
She called animal control right away and an officer came to assist Arnold in capturing the reptile.
"As soon as you went to reach for it, it slithered away down the toilet and out of sight," says Kelly Pettinger, an animal control officer, who was trying to get the reptile out using tongs. "It was the weirdest thing."
In his 12 years working for the city, Pettinger has never seen reptiles floating in toilet bowls. But he has captured bats, squirrels, a turtle or two and one .
Pettinger predicts the salamander came out of the sewer into Arnold's toilet.
"It was hideous," he laughs. "You'd be quite paranoid sitting down on the toilet."
Brandon University's zoology professor, Joe Carney, agrees the reptile likely came from the sewer.
"I don't know how it could have climbed into the toilet," he says.
He says tree roots could have cracked the pipes, providing access for the reptile to slither inside.
Carney said salamanders generally thrive in moist areas, such as ponds and under tree logs.
Meanwhile, Pettinger left Arnold's home after countless attempts to remove the slimy creature.
He advised Arnold to trap him with a toilet brush, so it couldn't get back down into the sewer and left her pondering the next move.
She didn't want to flush the toilet, in case he travelled to someone else's home.
"I kept the lid down...in case, his brother came back," he chuckles.
Eventually Arnold's friend came over with some gloves and grabbed the salamander out of the bowl and released him outside.

slamanders arnt lizards, and they are not reptiles they are amphibians >