The clock on my elongated wall-desk told me it’s 9.30am when I woke up. It’s a Sunday. I loathe it that I cannot go back to sleep after I have woken. Unless I’m dead drunk the previous night, I lack the ability to sleep in on a weekend.
Tired of fighting wakefulness with cooling the room, soft music, and lavender oil in the aromatherapy burner, I dragged my dreary ass to the bathroom. What shall I do today? Okay, let’s cook a soup, lotus root soup. Sounds good. Let’s see what ingredients we have in the fridge and what I need to go market for. I converesed in my head as I brushed my teeth.
After splashing away the slumber, I proceeded to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. What I saw grossed and froze me…
Wahbiang! There’s a dead lizard in my fridge… Or is it drunk from the stash of booze huh? So skin-crawlingly gross!
Wahlau… at a loss for what to do. Better take some photos with my Casio Exilim ZR200 first as I’ve not encountered something like this before. How did this crawlie get in there? So cham… become 冰冻僵尸.
After getting all CSI with the unfortunate bugger at the location of death, I placed it on a tissue paper to take some more shots before wrapping its body in it. But as I was shooting, I noticed that the lizard twitched! Was it coming back as a zombie??
I recalled from some National Geographic docu that cold-blooded mammals such as frogs, lizards and geckos can sometimes halt their metabolism during winter and reanimate in spring. So I warmed it up with my hands.
Ta-da! The Nat Geo theory was right! It defrosted and came back to life.
This species is the Four-Clawed Gecko commonly found in homes. As its name suggests, the gecko has four digits on its front limbs, but five on its hind legs. The gecko can grow up to 12cm in length and is one of those vocal ones that can make pretty loud noises.
To help it regain mobility quicker, I stroked it for some time with my finger to accelerate its blood flow. It seemed really comfortable with me. I’ve not observed a live gecko so intimately before as they are usually high up on the ceiling and nimble on escaping capture.
I think the Four-Clawed Gecko looked so beautiful and especially cute when it licks its snout with its little tongue. So tempted was I to keep it as a pet but decided against the idea as I don’t want to end up killing this fragile thing from lack of knowledge about its care.
After it has fully recovered, I freed it by the stairwell outside my apartment. What was yuck at first sight quickly turned into a really lovely close encounter of the weird kind.
I hope it will visit me again… and stay out of the fridge this time!
Celebrate Life Lah! 