So It Goes: Go home gecko

The house we rented was an adorable A-frame and the children slept in the loft.  The loft's ceiling was dotted with the  little creatures, their little sticky feet splayed out and sticking to walls, ceilings and windows.  Sharing a room with them was a highlight.

I have a grandson who finds geckos as adorable as I once did.  They allegedly have three that hang around in their back pergola area.  He has named them all and loves to go out and check on them on a nightly basis.  Gerry Gecko seems to be a firm favourite.

There have been plenty of nights (usually when we are baby sitting) that the geckos are nowhere to be found and my boy is quite distraught at their absence.  We make up all sorts of stories about where they might be, but the most likely scenario is that I am there and they know deep down that when it comes to geckos my feelings have turned.  

They are afraid, and so they should be. My daughter in law has purchased a large gecko replica and put it on the wall of the pergola as a poor substitute for the real thing.

I am unsure at what point I turned from a gecko lover to a gecko hater, but turn I have.  Perhaps it was the hundredth time that I cleaned up the gecko poo from the veranda, veranda table, veranda chairs and veranda window sills.   Perhaps it was when I discovered that geckos hold nightly gecko conventions at our place.  While my grandson bemoans the loss of just one of his trio of geckos, I can show him at least three a night on every window at our place, especially those windows where the lights are on inside.  

Sometimes I just sit and watch them.  I watch them dart about on the windows, tails flicking, paws sticking.  I watch them leap forward and eat the moths fluttering about on the same window.  I watch them eat each other with equal savagery and abandon.  I have decided that any creature whose offspring are fair game don't rate highly in my list of creatures to love.

 I wish they weren't there.  I wish they would go back to Woodgate and live have their conventions in the A-frame.

- Linda Muller