Lizards Don't Like Lemons

Last year life sent me a lot of lemons. Big ones. That people used to squirt the juice of in my eyes. It was quite unpleasant. I had just suffered a horrible breakup and lost a lot of friends because of it. I was lonely.

My brother had just gotten a job as a manager at our local big-box pet store. I went to visit him at work one day, and the next thing I know I had spent a large sum of cash on a new friend named Reptar.

Reptar is a Leopard Gecko. Most people would take one look at him and say, "Ewww. Why on earth would you buy a lizard?!" But my only response is that Reptar is awesome. He helped pull me through a really tough time in my life. And it helps that he's absolutely adorable!

Seriously. Reptar is like owning a cat but without the smell and hair and noise. He stalks his food like a cat, he watches TV, he only uses the bathroom in one corner of his cage. It would be totally easy to house train him if I wanted.

A couple of months ago, I was at my brother's store again. I'm sure you can guess what happened.

Yes, I got talked into buying another lizard. This time I bought a juvenile Chinese Water Dragon. I'm not sure if its a male or female, but I'm leaning toward male so I call him a he. Just in case, though, I gave him a gender-neutral name. This is Basil:

Basil is totally awesome. He's a huge fan of water, as his species name implies. And loves to be petted and to roam around my room. He too, loves TV. It must be a reptile thing.

The only problem with Basil is that he hates being confined. When I let him roam, I sometimes forget to close my door and that leads to me thinking he's escaped the house. Its truly nerve wrecking because I don't want anything to happen to him. Also, he is growing too fast for his current cage to be of much help.

So my solution is this: Once I get a bit more incoming cash flow, Basil is getting a new custom cage. For now it will only be half the size he'd need as an adult, but since it will give him room to grow and he also gets to roam, I think it will be okay for a couple of years.

When Basil gets moved to his new cage, Reptar will get Basil's old one since its bigger. Then maybe I'll get Reptar a lady friend to keep him company.

Anyway, this post is getting lengthy so I will post more about the lizards and the cage updates later on.