Escape Artist of the Day

Beatrice is naughty.  I guess she has been feeling the spirit of competition with Winston ever since his courageous adventure a few weeks ago and had to prove herself.  Here's what went down today:
Scott built the chamelions a little sunning post outdoors that they were starting to outgrow, so today he concocted a new one.

Much thought went into this - it's supposed to be high enough that they would stay in it, but low enough that if they somehow managed to fall out they wouldn't be hurt hopefully.  He even added the safety measure of a barrier ring on the ground so if they should by some random act of God happen to fall out (or jump) they wouldn't be able to go far (the metal ring was more buried yesterday).  Well, Beatrice outsmarted us.  She is an odd one, that's for sure.  Chamelions crawl up generally - they want to be high and safe - it's instinct.  She doesn't.  She likes to be low to the ground and hides on the bottom of her cage all the time.  So, we took them outside to the sunning spot and Winston climbs to the top, meanwhile Beatrice goes right down as low as she can and hangs off a little vine over the edge by her tiny back foot and tail.  We kept checking on them and she stayed there.  I tried to help her in once and she went right to that spot again.  I walked in the house for a few minutes, came back out and she was gone.  

We searched the yard high and low.  Pouring sweat in the heat of the day, crawling around under the stairs, searching through the vines and grass, checking every inch of the house, fence, stairs, any surface we could see while hoping we didn't step on her.  After inspecting our whole yard and digging through the only bush we have several times, we gave up.  The only thing we could think is that she had somehow jumped from that little vine and cleared the metal barrier on the ground before scurrying off across the yard.  We solaced ourselves that we had gotten her to be a big enough girl that she could hunt on her own and hopefully we would someday see her as a huge colorful chamelion running wild in New Orleans.  
Tonight we went to dinner at our neighbor's house.  On the walk back we decided to look for Beatrice in one last valiant attempt.  Our only hope was that it was dark, and she turns bright green when she sleeps and is easy to spot.  Perhaps she  would be in the bush we had looked through all afternoon?  Scott put his headlamp on and marched outside.  Immediately, this is what we discovered.

Beatrice was sound asleep on a leaf at the top of that blasted bush we had dug through so many times!  We pried her off carefully, marched her right back inside, plopped her in her cage and latched the door.  Hopefully we don't have any more scares from these two rascals anytime soon!  Although, I do wonder how long she would have lived in that bush if we let her...

Winston and Beatrice back together again