11 hours ago
Homeowner spray paints desperate plea to tradies before family house is demolished
A homeowner's desperate plea to tradies scrawled on the side of her garage has been praised by Aussies who say they admire her passion and dedication.
The woman has lived on the family property in NSW's Sutherland Shire for the past 10 years, and over that time became friends with a blue-tongue lizard who moved in under her backyard patio, and occasionally emerged to bask in the sun.
However, after selling the lot to a developer, she began to fret about the welfare of her mate and called local snake wrangler Tyler Gibbons to relocate the reptile earlier this month.
'We went over probably three or four times to try and work out how to get it out,' Gibbons, who also works for WIRES, told Yahoo News. 'We did everything we possibly could. We put food out. We put some water underneath the slab, trying to get it to pop out… but no chance.'
When the woman contacted Gibbons, she told him the lizard hadn't visited in about a week — likely due to the cold weather.
'She had seen it probably for a couple of days before she first called me, but subsequently from then, she hadn't actually seen it and she was really worried about it getting crushed when they actually pulled down the house,' he said.
The snake catcher was planning on giving the rescue another shot when he learned the homeowner's settlement had been brought forward, prompting her to take drastic measures to alert the incoming construction workers.
'I couldn't make it out because they called it early. And then she said 'I'm going to spray paint the garage to make sure that they check before they actually pull apart the slab',' Gibbons told Yahoo.
A photo posted online shows bright read spray paint plastered across the side of the woman's garage reading 'lizard under slab' and an arrow pointing to where the blue-tongue would likely be found. At the bottom, she included Gibbons' phone number.
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Touched — and entertained — by the woman's effort, Gibbons went back to the property again this week to check in with the tradies on-site, but they hadn't had any luck locating the lizard either.
'They were a little bit cautious when they pulled that slab up and broke it up, just to see if it was there or not. They didn't notice it but that's probably a good thing,' he said. 'Hopefully, it had moved on because of all the vibration with the excavators. So you never know. Fingers crossed.'
Gibbons said blue-tongue lizards are quite common in the Sutherland Shire, and residents often keep an eye out for them.
'You'd be surprised how many people are fairly passionate about their reptiles and what lives in their backyard. It's almost like another pet that someone lives with on their property.'
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