Good karma is certainly on the horizon for the Sooke community who rallied together to come to the rescue of a chameleon spotted wandering through the neighbourhood.
“Anyone missing a chameleon by the sports box off Phillips Road?” said Tanya Green in her social media post, which sparked the search for the lizard on the loose.
Green had been sent a photo of the reptile by a friend who spotted it while walking her two dogs. Unfortunately for the reptile, Green’s friend had her hands full, and was too scared to approach it.
Stuck at work and unable to rescue to the animal herself, Green turned to social media for help.
“That's when it blew up online,” said Green about the post which garnered over 130 comments. “It was like a mad frenzy for the chameleon.”
Over 20 people, using information shared online, turned up to the area on Phillips Road to find the animal, known for their ability to change colour to camouflage themselves against their surroundings, including a coworker of Green’s, Sheldon Husband and his wife.
“Sheldon found the chameleon seven feet up a tree … grabbed him and then a lady took him,” said Green. “She had a hot water bottle ready for him.”
“It was amazing that this community just got together to save this little guy,” she added.
The kind stranger with the hot water bottle at the ready to warm up the cold-blooded reptile was a staff member from Sooke Veterinary Hospital, Caitlynn Neal, an exotics technician, who, with her colleague, Dr. Andrew Crookes, an exotics specialist, took the lucky lizard back to the clinic for a check-up.
At the clinic, the dehydrated chameleon, nicknamed ‘Houdini’ by staff at the hospital, was given fluids.
“He may not have made it another night,” said Kelly Miller, a technician at the hospital, who confirmed the reptile is an “older” chameleon.
“That [the social media post] saved his life,” she added.
How ‘Houdini’ the chameleon came to be on the loose in Sooke, and how long he was fending for himself remains a mystery.
“We don't know if he was dumped or if he escaped,” said Miller. “They are very expensive to keep, which might be a reason that he's not at his original home anymore.”
‘Houdini’ will be cared for Dr. Crookes for the next two weeks while the hospital searches for the lizard’s owner. If he is not claimed, the chameleon will be put up for adoption.
“Hopefully someone comes forward,” said Miller. “Maybe they just don't know that he's missing.”
