A FIVE foot-long iguana was left to spend the night stuck up a tree in a suburban Liverpool garden yesterday after both the RSPCA and fire brigade admitted they did not know how to get it down.
Neighbours spotted the reptile clinging to a branch 50ft up a leylandii tree in the garden of a semi-detached house in on Woolton Lane, Garston, at around 11am yesterday morning.
The green iguana, named Dino, went missing from a nearby house on Garfourth Drive. Three weeks ago, it broke out of its plastic-fronted cage, known as a terrerium, which had been kept under the stairs in the house.
Last night, owner Cheryl Owen told the Daily Post she feared the animal had died when it did not return home immediately.
Miss Owen said: "I was absolutely distraught when he went missing, my animals are like my family.
"He has escaped a few times before, but he's only made it as far as the conservatory. I was absolutely sick with worry.
"I put posters up all round the area, but no one had seen him. I thought he must have died."
The 45-year-old caterer also owns two cats and 10 Pekingese dogs, which she used to breed and show competitively.
She rescued the iguana seven years ago from its previous owner, a woman who had mistakenly bought it as a pet for her son not realising the animals eventually grow to around 6ft 6ins long.
She said: "He was only about 24ins when I got him, and he still has a bit of growing left to do. I had a female iguana called Babe that I got as a baby, but she died last year.
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