Chameleon

Yesterday afternoon my husband and daughter were in the backyard getting some fresh air. My husband was cutting big branches from the trees that are pushing over our fence from the neighbor’s side when he suddenly shrieked. Suddenly my daughter was by my side, breathless.

Mommy! We found a chameleon in the backyard.

Um, no. You did not. There are not chameleons, in backyards, in San Francisco.

But they had. A chameleon was just sitting in one of the branches that my husband had cut down.

Chameleons do not live in San Francisco – at least not outside, on their own. It’s too cold here for a chameleon – it must have escaped, or been cast out, from its home.

After knocking on some neighbors’ doors (with a face mask on off course) and some researching, I found a vivarium that would take the chameleon – and it was still open! We gently put its branch in a tub and I drove it across the bay to the vivarium, where it would have a spot under a sun lamp to stay warm.

When I called them, they also couldn’t believe we had found a chameleon in our backyard. His response mirrored the response I had given my daughter just an hour earlier. You found… a chameleon… in San Francisco.

We will likely be talking about our chameleon for a long time to come. I’m so happy my husband happened to be cutting down branches today, otherwise the little guy probably would have died.