I didn't mean to! Really, it's not something I'd ever aspired to do or would even think was possible in one's lifetime. But I did it. Thankfully, the little gecko was okay, although I did think he was a goner there for a moment. Here's how it went down: I was cleaning up the kitchen and decided to clean the crumbs out from under the toaster. The little crumb catching tray is on the side of the toaster that faces the wall, so I turned it around to pull out the tray and there was the poor little gecko all turned up on it's side like a hip hop dancer doing that trick where they balance on one ear and shoulder. His little foot twitched for a moment and then it was still. I felt really bad for the poor little thing and I started rumaging around for a bit of cardboard to scoop him up with, thinking I'd have to flush him down the toilet. I came back with my cardboard and the little guy sprang up and started running around in circles. With a sigh of relief, I coaxed him onto the cardboard, but then noticed that he was still running around in circles and his head was twisted sideways. I think I might've damaged his neck and he might have a permanent crook, but at least he's alive... Anyway, I took him out to the balcony and put him in one of our potted plants, thinking he might like to hang out and eat the bugs off our little herb plants, but he promptly hopped out of the soil and hid underneath the pot instead. Anyway, I took a picture of him hiding under the plant. Interestingly, when I found him he was a pale, almost translucent yellow/green. By the time I took this picture, he had changed to a dark, brownish with yellow stripes. I'm not sure how he got inside our apartment, although we do have a window screen with a hole in it that would be big enough for the little guy to get in (he's only about 2 inches long, head to tail -- just a baby!).
I've had a couple of other interesting encounters with Australian wildlife. One day, Susan and I decided to eat our lunch out on our balcony. Shortly after we finished our sandwiches, a bird decided to land on our balcony railing. He landed on the far end and then proceeded to move over toward us, until he was staring directly at us from about two feet away. We assumed he was hoping to get a treat from us and would wait a few moments and then fly away. We didn't want to feed him and encourage him to keep coming back, so we stared at him and he stared at us. He sat there looking at us for a good ten minutes! Finally, he got bored and flew away, but I've never had a bird come and stare at me eye to eye like that for so long! Anyway, I haven't learned what sort of bird it was yet -- sort of raven-like in size and shape, but mottled black & white, with a sort of warbly call. One of these days, I'll learn what it is.
Another encounter with a lizard that was much nicer than the incident with the poor gecko was with a juvenile lizard I met on Australia Day. Susan and I had gone to South Bank, which is a lovely park area along the river in the city for the Australia Day activities. As we were strolling along, I saw a little lizard on the wall, which I found to be incredibly cute because it had a gigantic head, feet and a really long tail, with an itty bitty little body. It obviously had not grown into its appendages yet and I just had to get close to it to marvel at its cuteness! Suddenly, it sprang off the side of the wall and ran towards my foot, as if to say "play with me!" However, at that point, I felt the need to chastize the little guy for running up to complete strangers like that. After all, he was obviously just a child and it's a big, bad dangerous world out there...
So far, it seems that both the wildlife and the humans here in Australia are quite friendly. I've found that random people will strike up a conversation with you while you're on the bus or just walking down the street. Everyone here has been really, really nice and helpful. Unless it has anything to do with telecommunications or internet. The mobile phone plans here are horrifically complicated and nit-picky, the internet service is locked down tight, and the phone companies charge an arm and a leg for their services, while making you wait ages to get anything hooked up. But telecommunication services aside, I've found Australia to be a wildly friendly place.
