NEED TO KNOW
- Goose, the water monitor lizard, went missing after he escaped from a Webster, Mass. home on Friday, July 18
- He was spotted on Friday, July 25, in Thompson, Conn.
- However, he is still on the loose, and Thompson Animal Control and Webster Animal Control are still trying to rescue him
A missing carnivorous lizard named Goose has been spotted across state lines.
The water monitor lizard has been on the loose since it left a Webster, Mass., home on Friday, July 18. The 5-foot-long lizard fled from the home’s second-floor window after someone who was house-sitting opened the window.
“This animal is owned illegally, and it is important to call animal control as soon as there is a spotting so we can capture it. We do have a reptile specialist we are working with,” Webster Animal Control wrote on social media on Friday, July 18.
A week later, on Friday, July 25, the Town of Thompson, Conn., announced on social media that Goose was spotted in the Little Pond area of Wilsonville Road and Thompsonville Road. Thompson is located about five miles south of Webster.
Thompson officials reiterated Webster Animal Control’s statement and said the town is also working with a reptile specialist. While these lizards are not seen as a threat to humans, dogs or cats, Thompson officials noted that people should not attempt to approach Goose.
“Please DO NOT approach and let the professionals handle the animal,” the town’s July 25 statement read.
The public service announcement also informed residents that “these types of lizards are known to travel, climb trees, and seek out water.”
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“They searched the area but couldn’t find it,” Webster Police Chief Michael Shaw told Fox 61. “It was spotted I guess under a car over the line in Thompson, pretty far over the line, maybe a mile, or a mile and a half, so it’s quite a distance from where it came if that’s the lizard.”
“They do bite and they have some pretty nasty bacteria in their mouth, that can cause some damage to a person,” Shaw said, adding that the lizard “won’t attack you, they’re not dangerous.”
“This is a first in my 29 years in law enforcement,” Shaw said, per CBS News. “Just when we thought we had seen it all, we came across a missing water monitor.”
“We come out in the morning and we’re looking around in the flower beds, hopefully you don’t see something come out of it,” Thompson resident John Despelteau told Fox 61.
Meanwhile, his wife Debra noted that when John is driving she will look out the window “up in the trees to see if it’s in a tree, or if it’s in the woods walking around.”
“I’m always looking for it now,” she added. “I actually feel bad for it, people are making a lot of jokes about it, but I feel bad because I’m afraid he’s gonna die. We’re hoping they find him and that he stays safe and they get him where he needs to be.”
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