Photo: Getty Images
A giant pet lizard has escaped from its Texas home and moved in next door! But it won't leave.
This is all going down on Dickens Drive in Killeen. Khairah Ali-Allen told KWTX her neighbor's three-foot tegu lizard escaped from its home and has now hunkered down underneath her deck. It's been living there for about three weeks now.
"Anything that’s not in a cage or a tank: count me out. I go to the zoo, I like animals, but I can look at them from afar, I don’t need to be up close and personal," Ali-Allen said.
In the near-month that the lizard named Aries has been living underneath her house, it has started to take a toll on Ali-Allen's health and well-being. "I’ve been having migraines, I can’t sleep, I’ve just been really on-edge, there may be a hole underneath the house, I don’t know. They might attack me, she might be afraid of me, I’m a stranger, she may think that I’m a threat as much as I think she’s a threat, so we’re both in the same boat ... except she didn’t call you all," she said.
Ali-Allen's neighbor and owner of Aries is a young man who lives two doors down. He owns two other tegu lizards, too. The news outlet reported he set up a trap at the deck opening, but it's proved unsuccessful.
Killeen Animal Services has been contacted, but they said "they cannot come because (the lizard is) under the house and there's nothing they can do until she comes out," Ali-Allen said. She's also made multiple calls to the Killeen Police Department and City of Killeen officials this week. Animal Control finally made it out to set up traps and set a perimeter around the yard.
"If we don’t catch her, I’m going to be stuck with the lizard if (the owner) doesn’t get it within two to three weeks, and he says the lizard won’t come out until March," Ali-Allen said. Tegu lizards are known for "brumate," which is a survival tactic like hibernation where they'll stick in one place through the winter, according to KWTX. "Somebody please just come and help me get his lizard, I don’t want it, I don’t like it, and it’s making my life a nightmare."