THE TELEGRAPH (Nashua, New Hampshire) 18 August 05 Rescued amphibian seeks new residence (Andrew Wolfe)
Merrimack: A wee iguana played hide-and-seek with police Tuesday after a maintenance worker spotted it under an officer’s car.
Police won, and now animal control officer Jennifer Lavigne needs to find a home for the cold-blooded critter, which police have named Geico.
“We’re not really equipped to take care of an iguana,” Lavigne said Wednesday.
A town employee spotted the little lizard – about a foot long, from nose to tail – while cutting grass outside the police station Tuesday afternoon, Lavigne said.
The lizard was lounging in the shade under Officer Sean Cassell’s car in the back lot.
“I was quite amused when I got the call over the radio,” asking her to check out a report of an iguana under Cassell’s car, Lavigne said.
The iguana climbed up into the engine compartment when Lavigne first approached, and hid somewhere out of sight and reach.
It came out after an hour or so, and Lavigne caught it.
Lavigne has asked around the area, in case the iguana simply escaped from its rightful owner, but she said it might also have been abandoned.
The iguana seems to have been cared for, and appears to be in good health.
“Obviously it’s a domesticated iguana,” she said. “He’s very small . . . very young.”
Lavigne was trying to feed it some lettuce, she said, but couldn’t tell if it had eaten any.
If no one claims the iguana, Lavigne said she would send it to a rescue group, such as the New England Herpetological Society.
Rescued amphibian seeks new residence