R.I.P. Roland

We often get little geckos that come into our apartment and hang out. They're cute and we don't mind having them. Usually they don't stay more than a couple days, but a few weeks ago one showed up in our bathroom and stuck around. We called him Roland (yes, after the gunslinger in the Dark Tower series. Nerd love.) He had been in our spare bathroom for over a week when we stopped seeing him and assumed he'd moved on. Another week went by and Bryan was moving the drain hose for the washer, and found Roland in the lint trap! Bryan thought he was already dead, but he turned out to be just barely alive. He was hardly moving, and unlike healthy geckos which have big fat tails, Roland's tail was shriveled and sad. We tried our best to take care of him, offering him all the food we could think of (applesauce, Bac'n Bits, cilantro leaves), but he just wouldn't eat. We set out water for him, but he didn't seem interested. We looked up gecko care online, and found that sometimes when geckos are shedding (as Roland was), they need wet paper towels to help the skin come off more easily, so we provided some of those. Every time I would peek in the bathroom to check on him, I would say "Bryan...I think he's dead," and then I'd stare for awhile and he would show some minor sign of life and I would yell "Never mind!!! His foot just moved!" He hung in there for about five days, but alas, eventually he succumbed. Bryan fulfilled his man-of-the-house duties by flushing Roland while I shouted a eulogy from the next room. And that's the pathetic story of Roland the gecko.