Students never cease to amaze me. These past two weeks I have been spoiled- handmade cards, unexpected chores and minty m&ms, homemade mole', fresh picked strawberries~ and then yesterday Donna brought me a lizard. Apparently their lizard had babies, or they acquired lizard babies, or what ever happened happened and they have a slight excess of bearded dragons- and I was the beneficiary of one- Hooray! He is a baby- only a few weeks old- and will be between 1 and 2 feet when fully grown. Mrs. Chase- the new bio teacher- checked him out (we don't actually know if it is a 'him' or not, but for various reasons that I will explain later, I think it is- at least in my mind), pronounced him healthy and fit (she has reptile pets), let us have temporary use of an aquarium and gave me a run-down on the care and feeding of a dragon.
Now, I have had lizards before. And snakes, salamanders, crawfish, frogs, toads, assorted rodents, dogs, cats, birds, horses, rabbits, turtles and tortoises, crabs, and everything else imaginable- I love animals, Grendel loves animals, and we had a zoo full the whole time he was growing up. Now Mr. Owens and I are down to Max and Ursula, and, of course, Turello who runs the entire house with a velvet paw. And there are our 'outside' animal friends- Leo and family, the skink mafia, visiting Turkeys and Guineas, butterflies everywhere. We've never had this type of lizard though- before it was the local anoles, a few water dragons- mostly tropical/semi aquatic lizards. George here is a desert lizard- sand, light, heat are his friends, he is rough and coppery gold, and has a different personality from the aloof water dragons and lazy Leos.
Bearded Dragons are social creatures- they take an interest in what is going on around them, enjoy being handled, tend to be active and with strong personalities. Yesterday when he was in my office, when ever one of my art girls came in to look at him (oddly enough, it was always the *girls* that wanted to see/play with the lizard...and no I didn't let them touch him- no stress for my new baby- the *boys* were curious but not enough to get close.) anyway, when the girls came in he would do this head-bobbing thing, like he was checking them out. Then sometimes he would raise a hand- like he was waving them over, or giving a thumbs up. Definitely a cad....and I decided that he looks a bit like George Clooney, you know, that smirk- and thus it was decided that he is a he and his name is George.
The manz is not as fond of George as I am. Likes him firmly in his cage in the other room, worries about the *cat* getting over excited and interested in him (which is probably true as Turrello has taken up hunting and is quite good at catching Mice and Leos) and causing chaos trying to get to him. So after various phone calls and a brief scare (Grendel's phone was dead, he wasn't at work, not returning texts or facebook posts- we had been watching 48hrs and I was sure he had been murdered....but no, phone was just charging and all is well) it has been decided that George will move in with Grendel. George's social needs will be fulfilled- he will get the attention and petting- and Grendel will have a cool pet once again- one that is apartment friendly but a whole lot more interesting than fish. George will hang with us until Sunday- then it's off to the big city with unlimited babes for the checking out and late nights up with the guys. Fun, Fun, Fun!
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