Mystery Solved

 Ever since we moved into this house, I've found these little black signs that we were not alone.  At first I tried to dismiss them.  I thought maybe while the house was empty something crawled around and had a jolly time.  But now that we were living here, surely we had scared it away. 

But the next morning came and there it was again, a little piece of poop.  It was always in our bathroom (the one off of our bedroom).  Sometimes the poo was on the floor, on the window sill, on the wall or in the tub.  We've lived in this house for over a month now and every morning I get up to take a shower and I do a quick scan to look for little poo to clean before I begin my day.  I've never seen the culprit, but I imagined it was probably a lizard.  We had had a slug problem and I was *really* hoping that this poo was not related to slugs.  (The slugs here are ginormously huge and disgusting.  I would rather any animal poo over slugs any day, and I don't even know if slugs poo.).  And the poo didn't bother me too much until I woke up the other day and saw it on the sink, right next to the toothpaste, which is right next to my toothbrush.  That's just gross.

Way too early this morning, Jeff and I both were awakened by a strange noise.  We've gotten used to the loud and sometimes rowdy sounding neighbors and the continual barking of dogs at night (we've decided that dogs barking at night is the national sound of Kenya).  We usually sleep through any of the normal noises.  But this was one we hadn't heard before.  Jeff jumped out of bed and stood by the bathroom door.  It was definitely coming from in there.  It sounded like something rustling through the trash can in there.

By now I'm creeped out.  I know it has to be some form of creepy-crawly.  I'm thinking geckos, slugs and even snakes could be in there.  Jeff flipped on the light, still keeping a safe distance outside of the room.  But we could still hear the rustling.  Standing on his tiptoes and leaning in without getting too close to the garbage can, he discovers that it is a little lizard, who has gotten himself stuck in the garbage can and can't get out.

I'm assuming he helped it out, but I never asked.  I was just relieved it wasn't a snake or rodent.  Plus we see the little lizards here all the time.  I don't mind them if they keep a safe distance.  I then decide that the lizard must be the pooper I am cleaning up after all the time.  And I head back to sleep.

When I woke up again this morning at a more agreeable hour, I did my usual poop check.  Nope.  I was surprised given the fact that I knew the little fella was out and about.  As I go through my daily routine, I'm getting out of the shower and I open the curtain and something fell to the floor!  Ugh!  I am as blind as a bat without my glasses, so I was desperately hoping it wasn't a living thing, but by squinting I was pretty positive it was a lizard. 

Totally creeped out and thinking that the beady-eyed little beast was probably staring down at me during my whole shower waiting to pounce on my head at the moment I closed my eyes to rinse my hair, I screamed or yelled.  But no one came.  The kids were at the opposite end of the house and Jeff had already left.  When I screamed the creepy thing wiggled away under wicker shelf. 

I quickly got out and dressed and rushed to get the kids.  They had been lizard hunting since day one of being in Kenya, so I figured they would take care of getting him out of the bathroom.  They were all gung-ho until I moved the shelf and they saw what kind of lizard it was.  I don't know the technical or scientific name, but in this house we call them night lizards.  They have a very translucent kind of color and creepy eyes.  You only see them out at night time.  They are kind of like the vampires of lizards (in my unscientific opinion). 

Even my fearless lizard hunting children were creeped out and refused to help.  They just wanted to watch.  I'll spare you the several minutes of trying to trap it without touching it, which all failed.  At one point, it was hiding behind the toilet and Elliott went to move the toilet brush and the stand it is in (it is not plastic, but something more like a ceramic, heavy).  Elliott accidentally knocked the toilet brush holder over and it squished the lizard.  We all felt bad at this point because our intention was to catch him and set him free outside.

Now I didn't want to touch a lizard that was alive and I definitely do not want to touch a dead one.  That's just gross.  So I told Elliott that he had to because he killed it.  After several minutes of debating, it was again obvious that my kids were not falling for my tricks.  So I grabbed a few pieces of tp as a barrier between my skin and "it."  Then I grabbed its tail and went to throw it in the bucket. 

Apparently the little booger wasn't dead.   He was faking.  He started wiggling, we all screamed and the next thing I know I'm still holding his tail, but the lizard is on the ground.  He had broken his tail off and tried to escape.  I could still feel it wiggling in my hand.  Ewwww.  I threw the wiggling tail in the bucket and tried to come up with a different plan besides using me or my hand.  I came up with nothing.  In the end I grabbed a few more pieces of tp and grabbed the little lizard around his abdomen.  I threw him in the bucket and ran him outside.  I placed him and his now lifeless tail outside together.

I'm hoping this whole adventure will have cleared up the whole poop issue.  But now I think I am more creeped out by lizards than before.