Mr. Dora

So we are back in Conakry now. We had a great time in Boke, but it is nice to be back. If you have been following along, you know that we found a chameleon while we were there. Well after the drive home, we no longer have Mr. Dora. Here is how it happened…

We put the lizard in a box for the ride home and placed him just behind our seat. I rested my arm on the box just to make sure nothing happened. We were careful not to show him to our driver or tell him what was in the box because the people here are DEATHLY afraid of them. During the drive I was constantly checking on him to make sure he was okay. Then, about half way through the four hour drive, I looked in the box and he was gone! I was shocked. Where in the world did he go? As inconspicuously as possible I began to search behind our seat in the cargo area. Finally I located him on Jenn’s side. I quietly informed her where he was and gave her a stick to get him on. By this time, Caleb, who was in the passenger seat, figured out what was going on. He said you better get him because the driver would flip out and crash if he realized what was going on. Just then Jenn was able to get him on the stick and started bringing him up to put him in the box. Suddenly he jumps off and starts heading under the driver seat. In dismay I watched as Jenn tried two or three times to pick him up to no avail. Before we knew it, he had slide between the door and the driver seat. Caleb realized what had happened and quickly yet calmly told the driver that we needed to stop for a minute. Once we stopped, Caleb told to get out of the car. I went around to the driver side and began looking for the lizard. By this point the driver was really starting to wonder what was going on. Caleb informed him that we had lost something under the seat. The driver then proceeded to “help” us by feeling around under the seat. At that time Caleb realized we better tell him what was going on. He told the driver to move away from the car because we were looking for a chameleon. The driver was horrified. I finally located Mr. Dora. He was hiding behind the gas pedal! Needless to say, when I got him out I had to let him go because there was no way our driver was going to continue knowing there was a chameleon in the seat behind him! Thus ended our second try at keeping a pet chameleon.