*Zombified YSB rises from grave* Back again! Plus one!
So after the death of my beloved Helix, and then the passing of my baby gold who I'd only had about a month or less, I couldn't take it. I was so heartbroken I swore to myself that after my two leos went, I was done with reptiles.
Pffft yeah. Sounds ridiculous now that I say it out loud. That was about a year and a half ago, I think.
Since then though, I've been busy! I was all over the place for a while following my work as a horse trainer. Durring this time, I would come back to my parent's house to take care of my two leos and I hated it because they weren't with me and I couldn't spend time with them daily as I wished, but moving them all over the place with me would have been grossly unrealistic and stressful on their at the time twelve year old selves. Shortly after I moved in with my boyfriend and things began to calm down a bit, Rokko passed away. He had always been pretty healthy, but he had aged pretty quick within the previous year and his problems with a calcium deficiency were taking their tole on him. I thought I was going to lose his brother Squirt too who had severely stopped eating or moving for a week after Rokko passed. I don't know how he knew seeing as they couldn't even see eachother from where they were positioned, but he knew. So, I carted him over to my boyfriend's house because I couldn't stand leaving him at my parent's house without being able to watch him constantly.
When I got him home, he immediately improved. I think he was just getting too lonely. Now, he is fat and healthier than he has ever been. Anyway, having him with us made my boyfriend kind of interested in reptiles. He was severely inexperienced, but he has a love for them similar to my own and I recognized the potential. A neighbor down the street from us had two Rosy boas, one he cared about deeply and the other who was just the male's companion. I saw them and he took them out and plopped the female in my hands, who immediately slithered all about, licking my face and crawling in my hair. He told us that the male had been with him since it was a baby and he hoped if he found the female a home, his wife would let him keep the male. So, he asked us if we would take her. We were already thinking of taking on another reptile, but I was skeptical and my boyfriend didn't know what he wanted. But ultimately, we said hes. She was such a sweetheart and the perfect starter snake for my bf to grow comfortable with. After all, I didn't want to just buy him like a monitor or something and say have fun!
So after we brought Lucy home, our little zoo expanded dramatically. I took on a mistreated Beardy who has become just an absolute joy. Then, we tried with a Savannah monitor who wasn't eating well. We hoped to nurse him back to health and I obsessed over him for a month but eventually he passed. I blamed myself, but the people at the pet store we got him from told me not to and that his sibling is doing poorly and will soon pass as well. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It gnawed at me. And somehow, that inspired my boyfriend to make a decision about what to get my for my upcoming birthday to cheer me up and get my head out of the dead baby slump.
Before my bday even came, we were given a coastal whiptail who had been caught as a baby and couldn't be released, but couldn't legally be sold at the pet store. Then, I took on a red tail boa for a guy who was afraid of her and just wanted someone to take her and spoil and love her like his daughter had before she had been taken out of his custody, making me the ideal candidate, of course
So! THEN came my birthday, the moral of this incredulously long saga. My boyfriend spent the whole week before the actually day building reptile enclosures for everyone and buying me reptile stuff (in excess) and then he told me that he was going to get me a Tegu. He reserved a baby from a shipment to our local LLL Reptile and it wasn't supposed to arrive until the thursday after my bday. But on the 2nd, my birthday, I came home from work to find a bright eyed and gorgeous juvenile Argentine Black and White Tegu. It was THE best 18th birthday a girl has ever had just for that reason. I've never been so pleasantly surprised before in my life. I had been worried about the new arrival for the past week. Would it be healthy? Would it eat? Would it be friendly? As soon as I saw him though, all that faded. He eats like a beast, moved around quite a lot, explores and burrows, and doesn't hiss at or bite me, although I did get a pretty nice little tail whip the first day I reached in for feeding time.
Right now, I am calling him/her Rorschach(Rorry for short), but I'm not sure if that will stick as he/she gets older and his little personality comes out. Anyway, this is the new baby and the reason for my reappearance!
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