The look in Kitty’s eyes as he saw his owner, Jamie Klein, walk into a garage in Vernon’s Foothills neighborhood was an expression of pure love.
And when Klein picked up her beloved eight-year-old Argentine tegu lizard that had been missing from her home in the Tillicum area for two weeks, it was mutual.
“He just melted away in my arms,” Klein said of her tegu, which she has had for five years. “He’s smart, super affectionate and we just love him.”
Kitty’s ordeal began, superstitious enough, on Friday the 13th when he somehow slipped out of his chain link enclosure. Even the floor of the enclosure is made of chain links to keep him from digging out.
“The doors were closed but there is a section of wire attached to the fence at one point where he may have pushed his body out. We went through that enclosure with a fine comb,” said Klein, who moved to the northern Okanagan from the coast in August 2020 with her family and pets, including Kitty. “And he couldn’t have climbed out.”
Falling temperatures at night were a concern for Klein.
Kitty loved the June and July heatwave, but when the family arrived last August, Klein said the lizard didn’t get a chance to experience an Okanagan summer outdoors. She said there was no way Kitty would have survived if he had disappeared over the winter.
But Kitty survived.
There was a confirmed sighting of the lizard while crossing the Silver Star Road. A polite pedestrian halted traffic to allow the reptile to cross without being hit.
That was until Tuesday, August 24, Klein got a call from a person in the Foothills who came across the lizard in their open garage.
“They knew Kitty was missing so I got a call asking the person to hold him in the garage until I got there. That was no problem. The person was very cooperative,” laughed Klein, who left work immediately.
Klein said Kitty lost a lot of weight while she went missing. He’s been munching on his favorite treats like ground beef and ground chicken while recovering from surgery on a piece of his tail that was broken and then amputated.
The broken tail was repaired by Dr. William Rotenberg surgically removed at the Vernon Veterinary Clinic where Klein works. She’s a veterinary technologist specializing in exotic medicine, so she was fairly familiar with the procedure.
“I want Dr. Thank Rotenberg for stepping out of his comfort zone to perform the surgery,” said Klein, who also showered thanks and praise on the community in both her new and former homes.
“Everyone was so awesome to help look for him,” she said. “My friends on the coast called their friends here and they agreed to come upstairs to help find Kitty.”
The SPCA, all veterinary clinics and local outdoor expert Pete Wise have been notified of Kitty’s safe discovery.
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roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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Pets & People
