meet stephanie

Stephanie is the gecko who lives in my bathroom. She likes to hide from us, either under the shelves that hold our shampoo and other shower supplies, or in the shadow of the giant squeegee we use to dry the bathroom floor after our showers. Sometimes, though, I catch her out in the open. She tries to flee and to remain unobtrusive at the same time: she runs like hell for about four inches (no mean distance for a lizard of her stature), then pauses in absolute stillness for a second or two before making another short dash. Eventually she reaches the relative comfort of one of her favored hiding places, where she presumably waits for the giant intruder to leave so that she can continue stalking her prey.

While the notion that my bathroom evidently contains enough bugs to support a gecko for an extended period of time does concern me a little, I am comforted by the fact that Stephanie is there too. On patrol. I like to think she has a particular taste for the mosquitoes that carry dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis.