Iguana Donna

Tuesday afternoon, we hit up the Olive Garden for lunch, for belly warming minestrone (and half a bowl of zuppa toscani) and metric ass-tons of salad and a breadstick (*cough*andaquarter*cough*), and then parted ways (I do believe the parenthetical things are why I’m still stuck in the mid-160’s, but I digress).  I believe the Zliten was on his way to Chez Target but decided to stop at a cute little reptile shop called Zookeeper we check out occasionally and drool over the leezards.

Before I go further, let me submit this picture of our current pet, Lump.

A sexy looking lizard, right?  Yes, but he’s also a meanie of a reptile.  When we picked him up at the pet store, he bit Zliten so hard he drew blood.  We thought that just meant he was a good, healthy, and feisty lizard and with time he would grow to love us.  After getting him home, we read up on Schneider Skinks.  The blue tongue versions are lovely, cuddly reptiles who will just curl up on your belly on the couch with you while watch TV.  These guys are mean and described as, for the most part, “look at, not touch” pets, though some say you can socialize them.

Over 3.5 years, we’ve been able to calm him down to where he doesn’t bite Zliten if his hand is in the cage and occasionally will be amenable to be picked up for about 60 seconds before squirming if we’re lucky.  Lump loves chasing crickets, he got especially happy when we moved to Austin and started feeding him Texas sized crickets he could fight with for days.  He also loves watching sci fi, actually, anything with good bass, and was absolutely mesmerized by Dance Dance Revolution when Zliten held him up to the screen once while I was playing.  It’s probably the longest he’s even been calm outside of his cage.

As endearing as that is, he spends most of his time buried under the sand (hence the name, Lump).  And that gleam in his eye?  That is the desire for man-flesh.  Much as we tried, he will never be able to hang out with us unless there are 4 glass walls around him.  So, we’ve talked about getting another lizard, one that’s a little friendlier.  Many times, we almost brought home blue tongues but they are so expensive (200 bucks), and they always put them in pairs that cuddle, so we couldn’t bear to be the ones who seperated them.  We’ve kept an eye on Craigslist for people that needed to get rid of reptiles, but nothing ever looked promising.

Then this gal came along…

To continue with the tale above, Zliten walked into Zookeeper and found this pretty ‘guana there.  She’d just been sold to the store a few days ago by a family who couldn’t keep her because their apartment was too small.  She looked strong and healthy and when he picked her up, she crawled up onto his shoulder and just hung out there, and didn’t want to leave.  Apparently, someone else was checking her out, so he messaged me a picture, I said yeah, and he paid and went to go get her an enclosure.  I do say she’s living quite nicely.

She seems a little timid, but soooo mellow.  No tail thwapping, no hissing, nothing.  When I pick her up, she’ll just settle wherever I place her and stay there.  She also seemed mesmerized by the TV and last night when I tried to put my face between her and the tube, she lifted her head like, “um, I can’t SEE now”.   So cute.  Hopefully she’ll get a little more comfortable and start exploring more when we let her out (be careful what you wish for, right), but she seems to like us well enough, and she is eating and drinking so she’s at least settled enough for now.

Lump’s been pretty much hidden under the sand for 2 days.  I think he’s jealous (or it’s winter and he hibernates more than normal).  Maybe it will inspire him to be nicer.  Yeah, that would be the day.

Now, we just need a name.  We’ve been calling her Iguana Donna but I don’t think that will stick.  Any suggestions from the interwebs?