Okanagan hunt for huge cold-blooded lizard has warm ending

After almost two weeks of searching and worry, Jamie Klein is one very happy and relieved mom.

"He's doing awesome," Klein said, eyeing Kitty, her rescued 1.2-metre-long, 5.4 kilogram Argentine giant tegu lizard.

"He's snuggly and he's great."  

The massive reptile disappeared from Klein's home in the SilverStar area of Vernon, B.C., in mid-August, leading to a two-week search that captivated the community.

Klein says warm hearts saved the cold-blooded, scaly, hissing creature from near-certain death.

"It was amazing. The community really did come together ... even if they were scared or unfamiliar or worried about coming across him, everyone just really tried to get him home," she told CBC's Radio West host Sarah Penton.

"He wouldn't have survived the winter here."

Big Kitty a 'brute of a lizard'

Kitty doesn't have much in common with the usual furry friends Klein sees working at the Vernon Veterinary Clinic.

"He's black and white and big,"  she said.

"He's about the size of a house cat, big low body, just meandering brute of a lizard that likes to, normally in the wild, be out there eating ... bird eggs, frogs, fish, anything rodent-wise that he could come across and snap up."

But this lizard's tale is not that different from those of many other household pets.

Kitty was a rescue.

Abandoned outside in November in south Surrey, veterinarians weren't sure he could survive the cold and a broken leg.

But he did. Klein adopted the reptile and then started using him as a hands-on patient at the Vernon clinic, to train staff on the proper handling of exotic animals.

As this summer's heat wave hit, Klein decided to keep Kitty in an outdoor enclosure because of the more reptile-friendly temperatures.

That's when the mini-dragon made a middle-of-the-night dash for freedom.

Kitty escaped during heat wave

"We can't figure that out,"  Klein said of Kitty's escape. "He doesn't climb, there were no signs of digging … [but] he made his way out and went on the lam for a while."

After looking for the normally lazy, lumbering, animal in the scrub on her five-acre property,  Klein put out a call for help.

Hundreds of people shared information about the search and followed sightings on social media.

"It was such a nice feeling to get that support out there,"  Klein said.

In the end, it turned out Kitty hadn't strayed far from home.  

A neighbour found the beast lurking in an open carport last week. He was thinner and his tail was broken, but he was happy to be reunited with his owner.

"I think he recognized me and totally relaxed in my arms," Klein said.

Veterinarians are treating the now voraciously hungry Kitty, and Klein isn't going to test if lizards have nine lives.

For the time being, this lizard is going to be an indoor Kitty.

"He's going to be grounded for while," she said.