A little skink somehow made its way into the house a couple of weeks ago. It was quite the crisis because they’re hard to find and too fast to catch.

The word elusive comes to mind.

Every time I slipped on a shoe or walked through a dark room, I wondered where the darn thing was. The internet says to spray them with water, not to hurt them, but to daze and slow them to allow capture.

But you have to find it first.

Two weeks after the first sighting, Scout caught the skink. He cornered it in his litter box and whenever it tried to escape, he knocked it back down.

This is how I found him, sitting outside his box and pawing at the litter like it was a sandbox. He started chattering when he saw me.

I dumped some water on it and ran the skink, litter box and all outside, depositing it on a hillside where skinks often sun on downed trees. Hopefully it’s safely back with it’s little skink family.

Life has returned to normal and now the spray bottle only sees action when Scout is clawing furniture!

Crisis averted.