Looking thin and slightly worse for wear, Emerald the iguana waited patiently outside the gate of his Qawra residence, apparently eager to be let in after 13 days away from his "family".

The family had nearly given up on seeing their 10-year-old scaly pet again after it went missing and the helper got the fright of her life when she opened the gate and found the iguana outside Snezhana Bodishtianu's porch yesterday. Its female partner, dubbed the wild creature, which was described as having been "broken hearted" after Emerald's disappearance - refusing to eat, drink or move from its perch - shared a bowl of vegetables to celebrate his return... but not before giving him some wary looks, as if to admonish Emerald for disappearing.

The iguana went missing on August 9. After Dr Bodishtianu's daughter Angelina fed the pair and cleaned the cage, she went back into the garden and found the cage open and empty, with the female iguana a few metres away, under the pomegranate tree.

But Emerald was not there, and although the Russian family scoured the area there was no sign of the two-metre iguana.

Dr Bodishtianu was worried she would lose the female of the pair, which refused to eat for days on end.

But hunger in this case was more powerful than sadness and some days ago the wild creature started picking at its food, although its appetite was nothing like it used to be.

It turned out to be a happy ending, but was Dr Bodishtianu absolutely certain the iguana on the porch was Emerald?

"Of course it's my boy."