Owner aches for missing iguana 09/01/2007 02:32:06 AM EDT
Sep 1, 2007 — Sometimes, an iguana doesn't recognize how good she has it.
Izzy, of Dallastown, is one such case.
She's probably about 4 years old, which - for a creature with an average lifespan of 15 - would make her about 21 in people years. An age when a girl starts questioning her future; whether it is time to get the heck outta her little hometown and try for bigger and better things.
Just after 5 p.m. on the sunny afternoon of Aug. 18, Izzy made her big break.
Brad Pheasant, her owner of three months, was cleaning the 6-by-7-by-4-foot glass cage he had built for her against one of his basement windows. He took Izzy outside, as he does most days, to sun in the grass or climb on one a pine tree in their backyard.
She never went far, and she didn't move very fast. So Pheasant thought nothing of leaving her there while he went inside to grab some oil for a mower cable.
By the time he returned, his girl was gone. Nowhere in sight.
"I couldn't believe she vanished that quick."
Talk about gratitude.
Pheasant had rescued
Izzy from a groundhog hole near his house in mid-May. She was nearly black from the cold and had a a missing claw, a nicked tail and a burned belly.
He scooped her up and carried her to the house. His wife, Therese, called neighbor Kelly Adams - who once owned an iguana - to see what they should do.
They scanned the papers, looking for ads about someone losing a pet iguana. But nothing.
"We're thinking someone moved and just left her go," Therese said.
The women took Izzy to the vet and paid for an exam and X-rays that found rocks and a coin in her belly. They nursed her back to health while Brad Pheasant built the elaborate glass living area for her in their basement - with branches to climb and heat lamps.
Therese Pheasant bought mustard greens and turnip greens and collard greens at the grocery store for Izzy. Sometimes even green onions, her favorite. "When I'd put those in her cage, she'd come right over," Therese recalled.
They took her outside every day, let her lounge in the sun, gorge herself on mulberries. Brad was putting the finishing touches on Izzy's indoor living area and preparing to build an outdoor one.
Therese and Kelly were saving for a $300 operation to remove the obstructions from Izzy's digestive tract.
But then Izzy threw it all away.
"I can't imagine why she would have wanted to run off," Therese wondered.
As soon as Brad noticed she was gone, he knocked on neighbors' doors and formed a search party. They scoured the ground and brush and trees.
Therese made fliers with Izzy's photograph and hung them around town, and ran a classified ad in the newspaper.
"I figure she's probably still in the area," Brad says. "But I'm worried she'll go to the road to get warm when the weather cools. If a car comes ... well, she doesn't move fast and probably wouldn't be able to get out of the way."
Brad promises that if Izzy returns, he'll be a better owner. He fell a little bit in love with her .
"She was beautiful to watch. ... It was almost therapeutic," he said.
She was the one who inspired him, he said, to consider opening an iguana rescue.
He realizes that sounds kind of silly now, considering the circumstances.
"We'd promise not to lose them," he said. "We're experienced at this now."
IF YOU SEE IZZY
If you run across an iguana in the Dallastown area that is about 2.5 feet long with a head the size of a squirrel's and claws missing on her left front and right back legs, call the Pheasants at 244-1008 or 246-5744
