I was always one of those cute and fuzzy animals type of person. Numerous
birthday wish lists and Christmas lists consisted of hamsters, ferrets,
chinchillas, and even a kinkajou (fun fact: kinkajous aren't even allowed in
New York).
Yea herps were cool and all - I never
had a problem with snakes and I’ve had my fair share of frog hunting
experiences (we even kept my catch once….RIP little froggy. I’m sorry I was too
young to do proper research and just fed you our house flies).
Fast forward to my junior year of high
school → my biology teacher had a leopard gecko in the classroom. Dr. Curtis
Connors was the name (Spider Man anyone?).
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MemeJerk. “The Rock Driving .” Know Your Meme, 2013,
knowyourmeme.com/photos/351557-the-rock-driving.
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That year for Christmas I submitted my list of
reptiles to the North Pole. I wasn’t concerned about where or how I obtained a
reptile - I just knew I wanted one!
*Side note: our closest pet store is
Petco 2 hours away from us*
Unfortunately, my bio teacher got to
my mom in the midst of my parents researching bearded dragons (I may have
stayed up late eavesdropping on their progress out of excitement…). She brought
up the dreaded question of what I would be doing with the animal when I went to
college. I chose a college that only allowed fish (I rebelled and bought myself
a fish tank a couple months later), which would mean my mom would be a reptile
sitter (mind you my mom is not the taking care of a reptile type of person).
That ended all reptile owning advancements on my end.
*A couple months later….*
I was at a Petsmart that takes in
small animals and puts them up for adoption. I stepped inside and immediately
gravitated towards the adoption table. There was a little 10 gallon tank and I
could tell it housed a reptile. Sure enough inside the cave was a little
leopard gecko. The sign read that he was $15 including everything he was
dropped off with (tank not included).
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| Zephyr's Gotcha Day |
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BACKSTORY
This little gecko belonged to a young
man who eventually stopped taking care of him. The responsibility fell to his mother
(who had no interest in reptiles). Knowing her son wouldn't take care of him,
and she didn't want to, she brought him and all of his supplies in.
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Earlier that day, we were introduced
to my Uncles crestie that he rescued. My mom loved him, so it made it much
easier to convince my parents that we should adopt this malnourished in need of
a home sweet little leopard gecko (granted my mom was imagining a crested
gecko, so she was surprised when I showed up with a leopard).
We named our leopard friend Zephyr and
he became the family lizard (but we kept him in my room (Mwahahah)). It only
took one day of having him for everyone to fall in love with him - even the
dog!
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| Zephyr and Monet meet for the first time! |
Having Zephyr introduced me to a world
I didn’t even know existed. As I began to do more research on the husbandry of
reptiles, and what kind of reptiles were out there, the more I wanted to keep
adopting.
Owning a reptile is great, but knowing
that you adopted/rescued is even better, because it comes with the feeling of
knowing that you just gave this little animal a second chance. I’m by no means
putting down purchasing reptiles, because I know in my life there will come a
time where the only way to get a certain herp I want will be through a breeder,
but I do recommend, if you can, adopting and becoming a home to a herp in need.
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Love my little man
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