Project: Save the Lizard

This morning, we had all been up a few hours and hubby was off at work. The kids started getting excited about something. Well, it turns out the excitement was a small lizard in our fireplace! I figure it crawled down the fireplace? We have the black chain netting in front of the fireplace and the lizard was on it. There is no glass or doors on the fireplace. HOW am I going to get a lizard out from there?!? My son is a lizard, toad and pretty much all creatures lover! I asked him, if he thought he could get it himself. "No, Mom," he replied. "Those little lizards are fast. Only Dad can get them." Great! Kids chimed in, "call Dad, call Dad!" I call Dad to bother him at work with our big house emergency. He said to tell my son, "He (the lizard) got himself in this situation, he can get himself out." That's my husband's survival of the fittest thinking. I worried. I worried about us running our errands later today and coming home and finding the lizard running around the house. Or worse, not being able to find the lizard when we returned home. My children were thrilled with a homeschool project so early in the morning. How can we rescue the lizard? Problem solving hats on, they scurried out to the garage to make a plan and gather their tools! They came back in the house after a few minutes with their ideas, plans and tools. They explained each plan to me and we determined the best plan of action. We put plan 1 into place....when I approached the lizard from behind, he didn't move. So we modified that plan then and I approached him again from behind with a small net. When you are a creature lover, you have all sorts of different size nets! I got him! He must have been in shock about the whole situation as he didn't object or really try to get away. I gently guided him into the net, then we got him into a small critter container. My son took him right outside, let him go, and said, "this must be the happiest day of that lizard's life!" My daughter added, "the lizard rushed off to his natural habitat." We all high fived and shared our excitement that we helped rescue the lizard and return him to his habitat. I love being a homeschool Mom and the adventures we find......