Few things can mend a broken heart and for three days a female iguana has refused to move from its perch, neither eating nor drinking.
When its owner, Snezhana Bodishtianu tried to put the food bowl next to it, the iguana brushed it aside with its tail, sending the bowl crashing to the ground.
"I am worried about it," Dr Bodishtianu said about her pet, dubbed "the wild creature".
The Russian family says the iguana is "depressed" after its male partner, Emerald, disappeared on Sunday. They are offering a reward to anyone who manages to track down the two-metre reptile.
Dr Bodishtianu's 19-year-old daughter, Angelina, fed the pair and cleaned the cage on Sunday morning. When she went back into the garden of the Qawra house after lunch, the cage was empty and the female iguana was a few metres away, underneath the pomegranate tree.
Emerald was nowhere to be seen.
After scouring the garden and the house, the family took to the streets, asking neighbours whether they had seen the iguana in their gardens.
But the search proved futile and until yesterday there was still no sign of the beloved pet.
Dr Bodishtianu - the principal of an international boarding school for Russian-speaking children in Malta - said Emerald was used to being out of the cage and had never disappeared.
"Emerald would normally go towards the dogs' food and try to steal from their bowls," she said with a sad smile.
"We want Emerald back because we love our pet. He is a nice and wise pet that is really friendly and fragile. It is easy for Emerald to get hurt because iguanas have emotions and can get depressed and scared. I don't want anything to happen to our pet," she said.
The family is even more concerned about the female iguana, which has taken the loss of its mate badly.
"The wild creature is really depressed and does not want to communicate with anyone, or move, which is strange since iguanas are at their most agile when the weather is hot."
The female iguana is not even allowing its owners to touch it and spends the day motionless, sitting on the perch in a big cage in the garden.
But the family do not just want to get another iguana to keep this one company. Dr Bodishtianu said when they first got the two reptiles some 10 years ago, they did not get on, and it took some time before they finally clicked. "It's like marriage in humans, so right now she is waiting for her husband to come back," she said.
• Anyone who sees the iguana can phone the Bodishtianu family on 9940 8119 or 2157 3769.