A rare lizard survived a 3,000-mile flight in a freezing cold luggage hold only to then be put through the wash by an unsuspecting holidaymaker.

Company director Sue Banwell-Moore had returned from a holiday in the Cape Verde islands with a friend when she found the brown 6in long Chioninia lizard among her washing. Ms Banwell-Moore said after the initial shock she realised it must have stowed away in her suitcase and travelled all the way back to her house in Churchinford near Taunton. She said she has since grown rather fond of the lizard, which she has named Larry.

“I got home on the Tuesday and it was snowy in the Blackdown Hills, and we got back in the early hours of the morning so it wasn’t until the next day when I did a couple loads of washing that I found him,” she said. “I put the first lot out and then when I put the second lot out on to the clothes horse to dry, I looked down and there was this lizard on the floor. It was just sort of there. I did scream, I was just so shocked, I couldn’t believe how it had got there, on my floor, and was wondering if it was going to run all around the room. I touched it and it didn’t move – it was very cold – and I thought maybe it was dead.”

After covering the lizard with a saucepan for her son to pick up later, she took a “little peek” and to her surprise found he had moved. Ms Banwell-Moore said she was worried the lizard would not make it through the night, but in the morning he seemed to be doing well.

After the initial shock had passed Ms Banwell-Moore said she had fallen in love with Larry after realising just what the reptile had gone through.

“He had been in the hold of the aeroplane, through the delicate cycle of my washing machine, he went through quite an ordeal, but he is so sweet. I realised what the poor thing had been through, and I sort of fell in love with him.”

She added that while on the island of Sal – one of the most northerly of the islands off the western coast of Africa – she had only ever seen one lizard.

Larry has now completed the last part of his journey – 25 miles from Churchinford to the Tropiquaria Wildlife Park in Watchet, where he will spend the rest of his days. The keepers at the park have been keeping a close eye on the lizard after fears the washing powder could have affected his breathing. But the park’s director Chris Moiser, who said since taking over Tropiquaria four years ago he had wanted to move the collection in a slightly more African direction, said he jumped at the chance of giving Larry a new home.