EDMONTON — An Edmonton woman is offering a reward for the safe return of her pet iguana.
Mary-Ann Holm says Gaylord escaped from her fenced back yard in west Edmonton on Aug. 13 while “basking in the sunshine” with her other pet iguana, Fluffy, and a tortoise.
Holm left the yard to answer the door, and when she returned, Gaylord was gone.
"Very, very unusual. I do this all the time, I've had my one iguana for 14 years, I can leave them outside, I can look at them an hour later and they haven't even moved an inch, so they're generally not that active," Holm said.
Holm had company come over shortly after, and they went searching but had no luck.
The week before Gaylord went missing, Holm brought home a dog.
"He seemed very freaked out about the dog ... I suspect since he's a rescue that he had a bad experience with a dog prior to me getting him."
Holm is worried about him because the weather is getting cooler.
Gaylord is about a metre and a half long, grey and green in colour, with orange on his legs.
Holm said Gaylord may be hiding in a backyard, under a deck, in a tree or bush or someone scooped him up.
She is offering a reward of $1,000.
Holm says she's always had a fondness for reptiles. She took in Fluffy after the reptile was abandoned in an apartment after a tenant moved out.
She took in Gaylord, who's about five years old, about three years ago after he was rescued from being kept in an aquarium "way too small for his size" and had lost part of his tail due to some injury. She also has a tortoise and a bearded dragon.
"I'm missing him and worried, the weather's not been great. I live at edge of town, there's coyotes and a lot of construction, lots of dangers out there."
Holm says iguanas aren't that fragile, but they won't eat if they are cold.
"They need to be warm to eat. He'll definitely be getting skinnier."
