Finally, Everything’s Iguana Be All Right : Pets: Igora’s feeling fine now, after surgery to remove a stone and a gender. And her friends at school couldn’t be happier.

This is a story of a much-loved, gender-confused iguana that mistook a rock for a raspberry and nearly died.

And, thanks to a local veterinarian who donated his surgical skills to save the iguana, this tale has a happy ending.

Igora the iguana, the three-foot-long mascot of the Orange County Children’s Mental Health Clinic in Mission Viejo and surrogate pet to hundreds of children served by the county-run clinic, paid a return visit to her savior Thursday. The lizard, along with about 20 county mental health workers, surprised veterinarian Doug Coward with cake and flowers to say thanks.

“As a former schoolteacher, I know the kind of bond that exists between children and classroom pets,” said Coward, who successfully extricated the rock from the lizard’s belly last February. “Igora gave me quite a few gray hairs, but I’m glad she made it.”

Once known as Igor, the plump, green iguana lives in a special terrarium at the clinic, which is at Los Alisos Intermediate School. It is a reptilian fantasyland, built inside an eight-foot-wide pagoda complete with waterfall and pool.

“When the kids get out of school at 3 p.m., they run to Igora,” said Linda Rappaport, county chief of children’s services. “She’s a very mellow pet and is great with the children. With all the publicity over ‘Jurassic Park,’ they think of her as a little dinosaur.”

More than just a mascot, Igora has therapeutic value for the children who visit the clinic. Some youngsters are being treated for physical abuse; others have problems ranging from attention deficit disorder to more severe mental disorders.

Although she is not used in therapy or other treatment at the clinic, Igora’s presence carries many of the values of pet therapy.

“A lot of the kids who come to us don’t have friends or pets,” Rappaport said. “They talk to Igora and tell her secrets, and she listens.

“Quite a few of our kids developed a feeling for animals because of Igora and are on the road to developing social skills,” she said. “Igora is really a link for the children.”

When the lizard turned up a snout to its usual diet of carrots, green beans and broccoli in January, the clinic staff grew worried.

X-rays revealed a large stone in her belly. Staff members speculate that the iguana--then known as Igor--gobbled up the rock, mistaking it for a cherished raspberry.

But the X-rays also revealed something that gave clinic staffers a double shock.

First, Igor needed to be renamed Igora. Second, she was pregnant.

This carried serious implications because the many, infertile eggs carried by Igora would make it difficult for the veterinarian to operate. Fortunately, Igora reabsorbed many of her eggs, freeing Coward to perform surgery.

Was he certain Igora would recover? “I found another green lizard just like her as a backup,” Coward said. “We named him Igor.”

Today, Igora sports a four-inch scar on her stomach, with stitches still intact. She has made a full recovery of her health and sunny disposition.

“I used to think reptiles didn’t do anything and hung around in the ooze,” Rappaport said. “When the kids pet her, I swear, you can actually see Igora smile.”