I saved another life today. It wasn’t easy. My timing had to be just right. He was weak and not in a cooperative mood. When at last my good deed was done, I sat down and took a deep breath. Was I getting too old for such heroics?

That was gecko number three that I managed to get out of the house this year before he or she crawled into a corner and perished from lack of food and water.

It’s kind of a cause celebre for me to help these little creatures. I can’t rest easy until I have managed to direct them out of our residence and into Mother Nature’s bosom. There’s also the problem of gecko poop to deal with if I don’t move them along.

For some reason, the little buggers are crazy to get inside. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s some sort of coming-of-age ritual among young lizards. The worst ones are the geckos that hang around the front door and then scurry in when I open it to retrieve a package.

Zip and he’s in and headed for underneath the couch. Later in the day, I spot him on one of the dining room chairs, bouncing up and down, his little ruby throat expanding and contracting. If it’s a mating dance, he has to know that I’m not interested.

Today’s gecko skipped the front door and showed up on the lanai. Every time he saw me coming he’d dart under one of the patio chairs. After a week, I had almost given up. Then I spotted him hanging onto one of the screens, looking longingly at the outside.

To get him out I had to unlock the screen door, open it carefully so that he wouldn’t fall on me, then plead with him to “be free.” He didn’t move, just clung to the top of the screen. Finally, with a little encouragement from the broom I was wielding, he slipped over the top to the other side.

I carefully closed the door. He stayed frozen on the other side. Poor little guy was too weak to move. He didn’t seem to understand that he needed to go to ground. Out of desperation, I slowly closed the hurricane shutter and watched him descend just inches ahead of it. He was free and so was I.

I’ve saved spiders, cockroaches, worm-like creatures. The toughest rescue was the bird that made a nest in the decorative wreath on the front door of my house in Indiana. To his surprise and mine, I opened the door too quickly one day and he came flying in and headed for the second floor.

Thoughts of bird poop and feathers all over the place spurred me on. I had to get him out of there.

I started by closing all the doors and shooing him from one area to another with my trusty broom. Finally, and I’m not sure how this even happened, he got the message and headed for the front door, which I had left open.

I congratulated myself for a good ten minutes . . . not realizing at the time that bird removal training would one day come in handy for gecko rescue in Southwest Florida.

Now about that snake I saw hanging around the front of the house. If he gets in, I’ll be the one moving out.