Allentown Firefighters Rescue Escaped Iguana From Tree

So your cat went up in a tree? Leave it there. I mean, it’s a cat, it’s going to come down, right? 

Wait, you’re going to call the FIRE DEPARTMENT to get your cat down? What if some serious fire happens on the other side of town with a kid in a wheelchair is trapped in a four story building with no staircases?

Oh, you just want Jax the cat back, eh? I guess I can see your reasoning.

Wait, it’s a freakin’ iguana? Seriously?

Allentown firefighters Tuesday afternoon safely caught a pet iguana that had slipped out of its owner’s third-floor apartment and jumped from a balcony into a tree.

The Allentown 911 Communications Center asked if the Fire Department might snag the escaped lizard at the 11 N. Ninth St. apartment house at 5:50 p.m., fire Capt. Joseph Donmoyer said.

“When Com Center called, I thought they were joking,” he said. “It’s usually a cat.”

Bringing down the 2-foot-long iguana was easy, but its natural camouflage made it difficult to find in the tree, Donmoyer said.

“We were looking and looking and looking,” he said. “He was almost the exact color of the leaves. But then we saw the tail.” Donmoyer climbed up a 24-foot ladder and made the capture.

“When I got up there, he was busy eating leaves,” he said. “I bent the branch down and grabbed his tail up by his rear legs. I didn’t want the tail to break off. Then I brought him down and put him in a box.”

“It was just one of those fun calls.”

Donmoyer said the iguana’s owner was not home when it escaped its screen-covered terrarium and jumped 5 feet from the balcony handrail to the tree. A neighbor noticed the escape and made the 911 call. Source

A NEIGHBOR called 911? 

Woah, wait. So, an Allentown resident living on Ninth Street called 911 for his NEIGHBOR because his neighbor’s iguana escaped?

This happened? I’m kinda shocked. OK, now it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

Awww, Allentown, where love happens.