09/06/2026
Well, apparently Wade Hardware is now offering wildlife encounters.
Caught something moving out of the corner of my eye and thought, “There is NO way that’s a lizard in here.” So naturally, I ignored it… until I saw it AGAIN a little while later.
This time I sprang into highly trained hardware-store-lizard-rescue mode: clear bucket over the top, carefully slid a piece of cardboard underneath, and voilà one tiny reptile safely contained.
My coworker gave him a walk one block east to 1st Street and released him back into the wild, where he can continue doing whatever suspicious little lizard business brought him into the hardware store in the first place.
We’ve decided to call him Wade.
Best guess is he’s either a Common Fence Lizard or a juvenile Western Crocodile Lizard. Either way, he came in, browsed for a bit, and left without buying a single thing, the nerve!!
Stop by, you never know what you will find.
Wade Hardware
400 SW 2nd St
Corvallis, OR
Open everyday 7am to 6pm