THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1999

ok so this is all my fault and i admit it. Ziggy's cage has a little screen door in the top at one end, where i put his food in. it has a hook to keep it shut. that night i fed him his late snack (a little squash), and i shut the door, and i did not hook the hook. i went to bed around 11. i left my computer on because i always do, so the camera kept going all night.

here is the picture the camera took at 12:21 in the morning:

see the branch? NO IGUANA ON IT. see the top left corner? THE DOOR IS OPEN.
(my desk lamp was on, that's why it's yellow)

he climbed up his branch, which goes right up to that corner, pushed the door open with his head, and left. i was asleep like three feet away and heard NOTHING.

FRIDAY, APRIL 23

i woke up at 6:30 for school and the first thing i always do is say good morning to Ziggy. the branch was empty. i thought he was down on the floor of the cage behind the water dish. he wasn't. then i saw the door and i screamed so loud my dad came running in with no shirt on.

we looked EVERYWHERE in my room. under the bed, in the closet, behind the bookshelf, in my dirty clothes, inside my boots. my mom did the kitchen and the living room. my little brother Noah said a hawk probably got him. NOAH. WE LIVE INSIDE A HOUSE.

my mom made me go to school anyway. it was the longest day ever. i couldn't think about anything. in science i told my teacher and she said iguanas look for warm places to hide, which helped actually. when i got home my dad had called the pet store and they said the same thing, warm and dark, and also that they can hold still for hours, so you can look right at one and not see it.

my best friend Stacey came over after supper with a flashlight and we went through the whole house again, room by room, checking behind the heaters and under the couch and behind the fridge. nothing. we put Ziggy's heat lamp on the floor in the hall pointed at a towel in case he got cold and came looking for it. i also put a dish of his collards next to it. i barely slept.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24

no Ziggy all morning. i was really starting to think he got outside somehow. then in the afternoon my dad went down to the laundry room to look at the dryer vent, because he said if i was a lizard that's where i would go. he pulled the dryer out from the wall and THERE HE WAS. squished in behind it, in the corner where the dryer blows warm air, covered in lint and dust and super mad at being found.

i cried. my dad says he didn't but he did a little. Ziggy was ok, just dusty and cold on his belly side. i gave him a warm bath and put him back on his branch under his lamp and he ate his whole salad and then he stared at me for like an hour like it was MY fault. (it was.)

NOW

there is a little brass padlock on the door. the key hangs on a nail next to the cage where i can reach it and Noah can't. i check it every night before bed. my dad says the camera should be called the ZIGGY ALARM now.

if YOUR iguana gets out:

1. don't panic (ok, panic a little, then stop)
2. shut the doors to the room so he can't get farther
3. look in WARM places: behind the fridge, behind the dryer, near heaters, on top of things
4. look UP. they climb curtains and bookshelves
5. put his heat lamp and food out where he can find them
6. keep looking. Ziggy was gone almost 2 days and he was fine

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