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Sunday, August 2, 2020

pets and peeves

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Friday afternoon, Meego and one of his housemates came by to pick up Meego's critter tank:  a big glass enclosure with air holes and screened cover.  It is the former home of his snake, Reese, who escaped to the wilds several years ago.  I think it's about a 75-gallon.

The guys can't have pets in their rented house, but Meego said the landlords gave them the go ahead for their herpetology endeavors.  

"Don't know if/ when we'll get anything.  We just want to see if there's a good spot in the house for the tank", he says.

Then last evening, he sent this photo.

Well, that didn't take long.  It's an as yet unnamed uromastyx

As I was texting back and forth about the tank and the lizard, I was remembering what easy and entertaining pets reptiles make.  We used to go to maybe a couple of reptile shows a year.  In fact, we acquired the California King Snake, Reese at one of them.

We'd usually see Reese's breeder at subsequent shows, and he'd remember us and ask about Reese.  After The Great Escape, we avoided that breeder at shows...

So this morning, I'm sitting here in my back "office".  The ceiling consists of those crappy tiles I remember from old high school classrooms.

In the meantime, the cat had managed to climb up into the ceiling.  I could hear him rummaging around, and I'm thinking he could come crashing through at any minute.

...which is exactly what he did a few minutes ago.




Napolion the cat is fine, landing on the carpeted floor, feet first of course.


And actually, I was planning to remove those ugly tiles anyway - going for the "industrial" look.
This was probably Napolion's way of getting the show on the road.


In the meantime, reptiles as pets are earning points.

9 comments:

John Holton said...

We had a pair of pancake tortoises for a while. Don't ask me why, Mary thought they were cute. They were quiet and undemanding, which led us to wonder if we were doing all right by them. We finally gave them to a reptile rescue group, because they weren't moving much, although they were still alive, and we wondered how much longer. I guess they're OK; Lord knows they're in better hands than ours.

Chatty Crone said...

No reptiles for me - where did you say that snake went? lol

Abby said...

John, "quiet and undemanding", yep! Pancake tortoises can live quite a long time,

Sandie, Ha! Yeah, the snake snuck out of its feeding box one day when we weren't paying attention. Never saw him again.

Linda Sue said...

good choice, reptiles are pretty great! no fur, no barking, and yet they are wildly affectionate, on their terms. Snake snuck- great title for a book about a runaway.

Abby said...

Linda Sue, "Snake Snuck" - yes, that works! Better story than "Cat Crashed"

Lori said...

My brother always had a lizard or two or a snake when we were growing up and later on, as adults, he lived with me and had a giant iguana. I rather liked it. He would hiss at himself in the mirror. The iguana, not my brother. And our fat cat, Clifford would go into the iguana's house and nap. The iguana would just tilt his head and give Clifford the one-eyed stink eye. It was quite entertaining.

LL Cool Joe said...

But let's be honest cats are prettier to look at, even if they wreck your home. I think I'd rather have a cat fall from the ceiling than a snake.

Morgan Cartwright said...

Reptiles are great! I've never owned one, but I loved taking care of them in biology labs and seeing them at the stores. I enjoy them outside also.

Abby said...

Lori, I bet a cat and iguana would be entertaining!

LLCJ, yes, now that you mention it, if something's crashing through the ceiling, I'll take cat over snake.

Morgan, they do make surprisingly fun pets if you're not too needing of fur.