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Lizard hitches ride from Italy to Northumberland

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-26 14:29

A three-year-old boy brought a lizard home with him from holiday in Italy and kept it a secret at his home in Hexham, Northumberland, for a month.

Health inspectors have now rehomed the lizard. [Agencies]

Daniel Giuliani, from Hexham, in Northumberland, returned from Urbino in Italy with the pet and his mother Elizabeth only found out when he said he was "going to say goodbye to his lizard" before he went to nursery.

Mrs Giuliani put it down to an active imagination, but received a call from her cleaner later that day after she saw it scuttle across the floor.

Mrs Giuliani, 38, who is married, believes the lizard hitched a ride with the family on their way back from Urbino in Italy.

She said: "I presume this one sneaked into the car while we were packing up to come home and managed to avoid being spotted at customs."

Mrs Giuliani, a barrister, who also has one daughter Lois, aged 21 months, said: "It is a lovely little thing, and I was tempted just to let it go in the garden."

After contacting Tynedale Council's environmental health department, inspectors have now rehomed it in the Newcastle area.

Mrs Giuliani added: "Daniel didn't want anyone to take it away so we told him it had gone back to Italy.

"He still talks about it and the other day in the car he said 'When are we going to see my lizard?'

"I said we would go and visit it next time we got to Italy."