A moment of silence please....

I am sorry to tell you that our beloved Louie has passed on the the palm tress in the sky. Some of you knew him, but most did not. Louie was an 12 year old, 6ft long, green iguana that lived in the lap of luxury in a pool house on Dauphin Island. It was October of 1997 when I bought him for $20 in Maryville, TN. He picked me by jumping out of the tank and onto my head. It was then that I had to have him too. I brought him home with all of the supplies that we would need. Dad made a home for him in my built in bookcase which he quickly outgrew. I was in college by that time. Mom and dad moved down here (Mobile, AL) and brought Louie along too.

Dad built him a huge window box to live in that looked out over Mobile Bay. When my parents moved to Dauphin Island, my husband made him an indoor/outdoor atrium in mom and dads pool house. That is where he has lived for the past 6 years. He has gotten out twice. The first time was in the summer. I called the police department on the Island and let them know if someone found him, he belonged to my parents. A cop found him sunning in the road and thought he was an alligator. It's Dauphin Island. It doesn't take much to be a cop there. They closed the road off on both sides and called my dad, who just walked up to him, picked him up and put him in the truck for the ride home.

The hole was fixed in the fence and Louie was given a good talking to by my mother. The next time he got out was just a week or so ago and it would prove to be his last. He crawled out of the hole he had made in the fence, climbed a tree that hung over and never came back. My mother looked for days and I even helped. Pacing the fence row looking in the brush and everything. Yesterday as she made her rounds, she found him, but he was already gone. Now all we have are the memories of the lizard who would bob his head for mom. Gorge himself on watermelon and turn his head like a dog when you talked to him.

We will never know what was going through that hard head of his as he escaped from his palace, but we will think of him often and know that he was given the best care that any iguana could hope for.

I'm sure you all think a little crazy for writing this about a lizard, but he was part of the family and meant a great deal to my mom. I'm getting choked up now just thinking about it. He was a hard headed and mean beast that would swat you with his tail when you were trying to feed him, but he didn't do that to mom. She made sure he had fresh fruit and water and heaters in the winter. Anything he needed he had it. She really did love that damn lizard.