I’m gonna be prepared!

We’ve seen how well my bravery held up to an escaping lizard.  I mean, it was a good try, a valiant effort, but it was mostly luck.  For the lizard, too, because who know what would have happened if I hadn’t been able to open the window and give him an escape route.

So, the question is what happens next time?

There will almost certainly be a next time.  Eternal vigilance is not possible.  I mean, a person has to go in and out of the door.

I have considered the problem from all sides.

It seems to me there are four possible solutions:

1. I could just ignore any lizards that are out-of-bounds.
   This seems rather hard on the lizards.  I don’t think they will fare well in this environment.  It would be like those cargo bays on Star Trek when the environmental controls go wonky.  And I would have to dispose of the bodies which is nearly as bad as rescuing the living.
2. I could get a cat.
   This, too, would be hard on the lizards.  Plus, cats like to bring you presents, and I don’t really want a lizard, dead or alive.  Then, too, I have known cats that won’t touch a lizard—so then I’d have a lizard and a cat.
3. I could get better at catching lizards.
   This solution has possibilities.  Next time I am outdoors with my gardening gloves on, I will practice.  There’s a lizard that lives inside the spigot by the garage.  He tends to tumble into the watering can whenever I fill it.  Usually, I just dump him out, but maybe a water-logged lizard is slower.  Then, too, capture attempts outside are free of the fear that I’ll chase the lizard behind a bookshelf only to have it leap onto me at some later point from off The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  (I now have 7 copies of that, by the way, for a project I’m starting.  That’s another story.)
4. I could get a lizard trap.
   A lizard trap!  Is there such a thing?  Quick, call Google-fingers!  (Okay, you can have Superman and Mighty Mouse.  Personally, I get much more use out of Google.)

Here is what I’ve found today.

It is possible to catch lizards on glue traps.  It is also possible to release them from the glue trap using vegetable oil.  On the other hand, do you want to deal with a lizard that’s been oiled and glued?  I googled again.

There doesn’t seem to be a big market for lizard traps.  Not a lot of different models.  Hardly any, in fact.  Actually…none.

But…there is a website with some lizard-catching advice, and it suggests…head smack!…a shoe box.  Why didn’t I think of that?

You can bet, next time, I’ll not only know where my gardening gloves are but also the location of the lizard loafers.