A Calgary woman is reunited with her six-foot-long black-footed monitor lizard Lucius after appealing to the public to help find him on Saturday.
Alison Johnson said she let Lucius out into her backyard on Friday before leaving her home and found out he was missing when she got back in the evening. She looked all over for the lizard but couldn’t find the large reptile anywhere.
“There were no holes in the fence, so he must have climbed,” Johnson told Global News.
Lucius has been a member of Johnson’s household for over eight years. She found him in her home after her ex-girlfriend brought the lizard home one day. Then he just became part of the family, Johnson said.
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“He runs the house because it’s really hard to make an enclosure big enough for him,” she said. “My nephew calls him ‘Auntie’s dinosaur’ and he just wanders around (the house). I think people think it’s strange sometimes when they come over, but most people relax after a while because he often doesn’t do anything.”
Johnson said it isn’t unusual for Lucius to be in the backyard, but he is usually in a harness when she is not home. She said she filed reports with the Calgary Police Service and Alberta Fish and Wildlife when she discovered he was missing.
She said she also called vets and animal rescues in Calgary in case someone found him and started a search of her own around the neighbourhood.
Mike Sheppard, owner of Cobbs Adventure Park and Cobb’s Exotic Animal Rescue Foundation, said Lucius was most likely hiding in a tree or a bush somewhere because black-footed monitor lizards are not social animals.
He said the lizard did not pose a hazard to the public.
“It’ll startle people more than anything,” he told Global News. “It’s someone’s pet, so I’m guessing it’s just as friendly, if not friendlier, than a lost dog or cat.”
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