A lizard's tale

I had a huge lizard scare this morning. I don't know which was bigger - the lizard or the scare...

Monday night, I turned on the light to find a huge lizard just above the window in the kitchen. I shooed and it went out. We closed the kitchen window and our bedroom window which are separated by only a narrow wall.

Yesterday morning, I sprayed lizard repellent all over the underside of the awning right outside both windows and all walls outside these windows. Last night I left the windows open as usual.

This morning, I turned on the light and saw a huge lizard on the door of a base cabinet in the kitchen. It looked just like the one on Monday night. It must be biding for a chance to enter our home! Grrrr...

The thing is, this lizard froze. It didn't move when I shooed it. I remembered how JY killed a roach and a lizard recently with her Magiclean stick so I pulled two dry sheets over mine and armed myself in front of the lizard.

But I could not do it!!!!

And it was not just because the pad was wobbly due to the rotational function of the stick.

I was scared. And I didn't dare to kill a big thing.

I thought of shooing it again but it didn't move even when I put the stick very close. I wondered if the lizard repellent had made it blur.

Kai woke slightly later than usual which bought me some time. But when I heard him turn off his aircon, I decided I had to get the day going. Nuked the milk first. Armed myself again.

Still cannot!!!

Kai was upset when he saw that breakfast was not ready. This boy is always gan cheong in the morning...

"It's just a stupid lizard!"

Then you help me la... But I didn't say that. I just held my stick sadly. By then, the lizard turned its body a little... 

Then Yang and Yu got up. Oh no, I had to get the day going!

I asked Yang if I should kill it. The last time we had a lizard in the morning, a small one, I trapped it under a clear box and he asked me to set it free. But this time...

"Yes, kill it!"

I hesitated. And this boy came over and took the stick from me!

"I'll help you do it."

Wa! My hero!

But no la, I didn't let him do it... No blood on my child's hands, hoho!

I went to tell Sito. I don't know why. Was I expecting he would kill it? Eh, maybe. But no, he muttered sthg and remained in bed *.*

Yang encouraged me and offered his, um, service again. On the other hand, Yu was standing a bit further.

"I'm scared..."

Don't teach my children such fears, I told myself. 

"Ok, I'm inspired by my brave Yang! I shall do it!"

I hesitated some more but eventually, I whacked it!

And I didn't let go. I knew it was under the pad now but what would happen when I let go?

Well, first the tail dropped and continued to wiggle on the floor! (Btw, it continued to move long after the lizard was dead!) Then the lizard piaked onto the floor and moved off! I chased it with the stick and quite quickly killed it. It took another three whacks? There was slight blood stains on the door and two spots on the floor.

I felt a bit sad :( Relieved, yes, but also a bit sad. Or maybe scared. I don't know.

At this point, Sito came out and told me it was less easy to kill as it was a vertebrate. Thanks ah...

My brave boy with his roselle plant which I dumped ytd coz it was dying

It was interesting to see the reactions of the three - one couldn't be bothered, one wanted to help, one was hiding. All three were super cute, even Kai's irritated response. But Yang was the cutest la. Next time your turn! But let me get a non-wobbly stick first.

It was also interesting to see my reaction. There were always lizards in AMK. And their poop. I leave them alone coz I didn't need to do anything about it. I mean, Mother was there right? Haha! But there was two memorable episodes.

I saw two big, fat, white lizards fighting under the TV shelf one day. I heard noises and peeked. I think I backed off. Not my fight! On retrospect years later, I wondered if they were mating :p

The second episode was downright horrifying. I was having dinner on the chair next to the wall when a lizard jumped from the wall right behind my ear into my plate and continued running off! Wth! I cried, tears and all. To this day, I couldn't fathom why it would do that...

When Sito and I moved into our first home together, there was also a few memorable lizard episodes - lizard ran across the kitchen counter, lizard giving me a scare behind the dish rack, lizard in the bathroom! We put up lizard traps a couple of times. 

I think it was in our second home when I began to fear and then hunt lizards. We had many, many lizards. When I was working from home, I kept heard the tsk tsk tsk noise from somewhere near the fridge. After helper left, it took many lizard traps to finally reduce the population to nothing except for an unlucky few which ventured in. Now that I think about it, there was an insane number of lizard scares.

• Lizard crawled over my foot in the kitchen! 
• Lizard ran across the middle of the living room and over my foot again! 
• Single popcorn on the floor in the morning when I dumped it in the bin last night - thanks, lizard. 
• Lizard ran from me to in between kids' mattress and the wardrobe - wa liao I just had to let it be else I would wake the kids! 
• Lizard on the microwave door frame kena squashed when Sito closed it to heat up his food - yes there was a crunch! Then helper said the food was covered so could still be eaten *.* Nope, we threw the food away.
• Lizard scaring me when I pushed the curtains aside to clean the floor. 
• Lizard on clothes hanging in the yard. 
• Lizard escaping from dining table / pantry counter when we turned on the light. 
• Baby lizard on desk which I ignored but climbed from behind to under the desk, ending up on my thigh!!

I have SKP boxes to trap lizards to throw. But they only work for small lizards. And it may take a long time for them to crawl up so that I could slide in the cover. In the past six months of living here, I had trapped only two or three. The rest, apart from this morning, I had to use the lizard spray to help kill it.

My heart is thumping as I write this. Very scary to kill something this big. 

Yes, yes, I know some people say that lizards are good coz they eat small insects. I saw online how some people set up "humane traps" for lizards and then release them outside. Then they'll go back or to another house?! I can't stand lizards coz they leave poop about and worse, they look damn scary! 

I know it's impossible to keep lizards out the whole time but I'll keep up my weekly sprays. If it cannot repel 100%, at least let it retard the lizards so I could whack them!