Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Lizard Encounter

It wasn't an abnormal situation.
I mean, people come into work every now and then with the question: "Hey...what type of animal is this?"
And they proceed to show me the animal.

The other day was no different.
A coworker came up to me and said that there was a woman who had a lizard and wanted us to identify it.
So I went over, and saw this nice big lizard in a dog carrier.
Like two feetish long.

I'd never seen it before.
At least, in person.
The look of it....I knew I'd seen it before, but I couldn't think of the name of what I thought I was thinking of.

I mean, at first glance it reminded me of an anole.
 
But those don't get over two feet long.
 
I pulled it out to get a closer look, holding the creature in my arms.
Trying to figure out the name that was on the tip of my tongue.
 
I was like "Well, it reminds me of a Komodo Dragon, but I don't think it's that."
And I was thinking all the while. I'm sure I saw something recently on tv about a creature like this.......
 
Then like 10 minutes (maybe 5?) later... my coworker was like "I think it's a Monitor Lizard.
And about that same time....
 
It bit me.
 
Surprise!
I actually was.
I was like. O.o Why are you biting me??
As Lizards hardly ever if not never bite....
 
But yah, there it was, suddenly clamping onto my arm -above the elbow- (as I was holding it like you'd hold any cat or dog in your arms.)
 
I didn't panic.
As I assumed that it would let go soon enough.
Because with other animals it's a 'bite and let go' sort of thing.
This guy.
No.
He...I guess She, the woman said it was a she...wasn't letting go.
 
I definitely wasn't in the mood to loose a chunk of my arm to a lizard.
Especially this random lizard.
As it actually was a monitor lizard. (and komodo dragons are part of that family. So I was closer with my second guess)
And guess what?
They're carnivorous.
 
:S Uhoh.
Not good news as I currently had one biting me.
 
It had only grabbed on at this point.
But as the owner and my coworker noticed that it was biting me.
It started 'gumming me'
-moving it's jaw, possibly to get a better hold?-
 
"Get it off me." I said calmly.
And so my coworker and the customer somehow managed to get it to let go.
I promptly put the creature back into it's carrier, and went and cleaned the bite extra extra extra good.
(it held on for like a minute or so....who keeps track of time in the moment?)  
 
Now,
don't get too concerned. lol.
The bite was rather minor.
I didn't have mangled flesh hanging off or anything.
 
See:
 
 
(this was about 7ish hours after the incident.)
Definitely not that bad.
It hardly punctured the skin at all.
 
And despite how the picture looks.
The bite isn't that big either.
My arms are rather skinny.
So in reality, this bite is only an inch long and about half an inch wide.

Definitely not as bad as it could have been.

Lol.
And apparently, I've impressed a lot of my coworkers and the customer.

Because I didn't scream, thrash, panic....you know all the pretty typical things people do when they get bitten by an animal.
I held still. Stayed calm, didn't panic.
And totally did not scream. ;) lol

Because in reality?
The bite wasn't that painful.

It may be that I have a higher pain tolerance than other people.
But it wasn't that hard of a bite.

I mean. Parakeets have bitten me harder than this lizard bit me.
And those hurt worse than a lizard bite.
Possibly because it's a single point focused in on a really tight pinch.
While lizards have wider mouths, more points of contact...so a thicker pinch.
plus, it bit me in the thickness of my arm, and not a thinner area like a finger. lol.

Yah,
I'm probably weird for keeping so calm.  
I mean, who wouldn't panic if you had this:
 
Biting you?
 
Apparently. Me. ;)
 
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
 
-Sarnic Dirchi
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment