By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

CANTON – Two anole lizards named “Ignition” and “Accelerator” were instant hits with 19 Canton Elementary School students Friday.

But the small tree-climbing lizards weren’t exactly thrilled when the wide-eyed faces and bodies of pupils suddenly pressed in on all sides of their glass-walled home.

The lizards are the new pets of Hunter Trimm, 7, who received them last month on his birthday, said his mother, Amy Trimm of Canton.

She brought the terrarium to school Friday afternoon because that’s the day the SAD 21 students began learning about reptiles, amphibians and mammals, teacher Kelly Gilbert said.

“We just finished studying magnets today, and last week I sent a note home with the students asking parents if they had any animals that could be brought into the school. Hunter’s mom contacted me,” Gilbert said.

The students were just finishing work on their Mother’s Day presents, when Amy Trimm walked in with the terrarium. Instantly, every child stopped what they were doing, and, as one, ran to Trimm like chicks to a mother hen.

The youngsters began asking several questions after Trimm identified the species, slowly pronouncing it for them – “a-nolee.”

Spellbound, the children crowded around the glass house and watched as Ignition, a brown colored female, and Accelerator, the green and white male, reacted to their closer-than-desired presence.

Amy Trimm said that the lizards’ names, have been shortened to Iggy and Rator.

The reptiles, she said, were the only thing that her son asked for on his birthday. The names, however, came from another birthday present, a Hot Wheels DVD, she added.

After sharing some facts about Iggy and Rator, Amy Trimm produced a plastic container of live crickets, explaining that lizards are hunters and bugs are food.

The “food” was added to the terrarium and the children were silent, watching and waiting for the inevitable.

“Ooooooohhh! She’s eating a cricket!” one girl said.

Later, second-grader Melanie Jordan said she liked seeing Iggy and Rator, “because you can learn a lot about them: how they eat and how they catch their food and how they can change colors.”

Classmate Spencer Vaughn said, “Those are cool, because they can change colors!”

“One ate two crickets!” Jonathan Barrett said.

“I used to have a wild lizard. He had brown spots on him,” Daryl Tyler said.

Amy Trimm explained why she got anoles.

“I got the small lizards because I wasn’t going to do mice,” she said.