As One Woman Violently Attacks Gecko, Another Jumps to the Rescue

Written by Winona Lineberger of San Jose, Costa Rica

When I lived in the Samoan Islands, geckos became my friends. My tiny, rather open home was packed with them, and I welcomed their fearless neighborliness. At twilight they would begin to prowl the walls and ceiling, hunting insect prey. They would perch on my hand and eat fruit and even meat. A group would always converge on my kitchen counter to crowd around the saucer of cut fruit and goodies I left for them, in exchange for keeping the unwanted cockroaches and other six-legged critters away. They did a good job.

A friend of mine objected loudly that geckos carried disease and should be exterminated. While dining with her at her home one day, a gecko emerged from the fruit bowl on her table. Immediately she jumped up, grabbed a spray can and doused it over and over, sputtering “Dirty, filthy beasts, I hate them.”

Quietly I reached down and gathered the choking gecko in my hand, excused myself and raced to the nearest laundry sink, where I gave it a thorough bath, forced water down its throat and then held it upside down to spit out both water and hopefully, insecticide with it. Then I retreated to the porch, cuddling it in my cupped hands. It stopped moving.

I Kept The Gecko Safe

Thinking it was dead, I opened my hands, and the gecko immediately opened its eyes. “Only sleeping,” I thought, and waited till I felt it stir again, about a half hour. Meanwhile, my friend was cleaning up after lunch and calling out to me all the gecko lore she knew, about how dangerous they were and the harm they did by infecting everybody.

Soon the gecko signalled that it wanted to be freed, so I gently put it down on the porch floor and left. After another half hour or so of conversation with my friend, I left by the porch door. Imagine my surprise to see the little victim of poisoning apparently waiting for me by the wall. It walked over to me, looked up at me for a moment, then turned and wiggled away, disappearing under the porch table. No sign of harm there at all.

All creatures, great and small, have a spark of the divine in them, and I was blessed to glimpse it in Samoa among the geckos who befriended me.

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