Photo: Courtesy of Rainforest Reptile Shows
BEVERLY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Goose the water monitor lizard is doing well in his new home, weeks after making headlines for escaping his owner’s house and going on the run for two weeks.
The five-foot long reptile is hanging out with the crew of Rainforest Reptile Shows in Beverly, and he’s doing better after recovering from a hookworm infection.
Goose crawled out a second floor window in Webster, where he was being kept as a pet, on July 18. The Massachusetts Environmental Police said the owners didn't have a necessary permit to have Goose in the first place.
He was spotted a week later in Thompson, Conn., which is about five miles south of Webster.
He was finally caught on Aug. 2 at Douglas State Forest, about 13 miles from Thompson and eight miles from where he started.
Mack Ralbovsky, vice president at Rainforest Reptile Shows, said Goose was immediately quarantined when he came into the crew’s care.
“We put him in a strict quarantine process to make sure that the other residents at the sanctuary don’t get any form of disease or things like that that potentially he could have had, especially form being in an unknown situation.”
While Rainforest Reptile Shows is a reptile entertainment and education program, it also houses a nonprofit called the Oasis Foundation, which cares for abandoned, confiscated and injured reptiles.
Goose is almost ready to move into his new enclosure at RRS Oasis.
“We’re hoping within the next week or two that it’ll be all set,” Ralbovsky said.
Rainforest Reptile Shows is also selling Goose merch, including stickers and teachers.
“It’s more of a cartoon image of Goose, and underneath it’s got his name and on the back its got ‘Goose on the loose,’” Ralbovsky said.
The organization said all proceeds will go to the Oasis Foundation and will help build Goose’s habitat. Anyone interested in making general donations can do so here.
WBZ’s James Rojas (@JamesRojas.bsky.social) reports.