Isobella froze. Something on the other side of the room arrested her gleeful attack on an empty water bottle. The bottle’s vigorous and relentless pounding into submission would have to wait. With wide eyes and a high pitched squeal she set out across the hotel room.
At eight months old, Isobella’s crawling style is reminiscent of a lizard. After two days in Bali I truly believe that she is kindred spirit to the gecko. Fingers fully spread and in a full-body wiggle she skimmed across the floor stopping just short of the thing that set her into motion, something potentially chewable.
With her left leg rising to balance her, Isobella ever so slowly raised her right hand reaching out for what was possibly the only choking hazard on the entire floor. If I’m lucky it will be a dead bug that she was carefully pinching between thumb and forefinger and placing on her lips for an exploratory taste before forcing it into her mouth.
Isobella often checks her food before eating it. Into the mouth and out again dripping with drool to be considered cautiously before being recklessly discarded or eagerly devoured. It was this instinct to test her food first, much like the ultimate predator the shark, which was the salvation of her first living prey.
For a wolf to have a better chance of catching a sheep it might dress up in sheep’s clothing. An often used metaphor that seems improbable as the wolf would first have to catch a sheep in order to “remove” its clothing. Even so, the metaphor, and maybe there is a more plausible one, is relevant here. Isobella had caught herself a very real and very wriggly gecko.
Whilst delicately pinched between Isobella’s thumb and forefinger the gecko was surely feeling a little apprehensive and somewhat duped. What in all likelihood appeared to the gecko as another, extremely large, gecko travelling toward it was now sitting like a monkey and squeezing its head. (The metaphor “a monkey in gecko’s clothing” would take considerable explaining.)
I arrived on the scene just after the initial taste-test had been approved and the gecko was heading for a wet and sharp demise as tooth number six had just arrived yesterday. I plied the soft reptile from Isobella’s mouth and sent it on an aerial trip to the other side of the room.
To my surprise, and Isobella’s delight, the gecko hit the ground running and took to the safety of the wall. Another loud squeal emanated from my little monkey as she reverted back to a gecko and took off in hot pursuit. Both hands were on the wall and eyes fixed on the ceiling where the gecko was now resting, clearly panting, as I grabbed Isobella before finding out whether she could climb walls.
