I know it's off topic, but this is lizard news that can't be passed
up. Yes this really came off the Reuters news wire.
Scott Kniffin
Flocking to See the Lucky Lizard
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Residents of a Thai town are flocking to the
home of a bereaved mother to touch and see a five-foot monitor lizard she
says is a reincarnation of her 13-year-old son and a bringer of good
fortune.
Chamlong Taengniem, whose son Charoen died in a motorcycle crash,
told Reuters that the lizard followed her home after her son's June 17
cremation, slept on his mattress in the house and loves his favorite
beverage -- fresh milk and drinking yogurt.
Crowds of up to 200 people have been thronging outside the house in
Nonthaburi, 20 miles north of
the capital Bangkok, offering their respects and showering the creature
with gifts.
Some scratch the lizard's back and stomach and hunt for numbers for
Thailand's state lottery on its
skin.
Chamlong, 51, says that her son turned into the lizard and she and her
neighbors say that the creature
had not been previously seen in the area.
People in the mainly Buddhist nation believe in reincarnation and that
spirits of people can roam around
after death and inhabit other people, animals and haunt trees and buildings.
Neighbor Pranom Chamchuen, 64, said she did not believe the lizard was the
dead boy at first but
changed her mind after seeing its response to hearing the boy's name.
Just like the boy, the lizard is very polite, she added.
``When the reptile wants to use the toilet, it crawls from its bed to a
lavatory outside the house,'' she
told the Kao Soda newspaper.
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