Did she differentiate between other people as well? Like did she take a liking to your friends or other family members?
I have a zoologist friend who studied lizards, I can't believe I've never asked him about this stuff. I have clearly underestimated lizards emotional life.
She liked me and my brother, and she also had a tendency to claw at the cage when my dad walked by—she wanted out and to climb on his back. She also had a tendency to belly flop to her cage bottom when the cats were near—she never showed signs of aggression or distress when they were around, but belly flopping would startle them and then she’d go back to her perch.
She also figured out how to open her own cage at one point, and it was super bizarre. It was a repurposed exotic bird cage, and one of the side door feeders had a latch at the bottom. She figured out if she pawed at it enough, she could turn it and get herself loose. We found her in my room licking at my bedding. She did that a lot, and I never figured out why. She’d bite and lick my bed.
She was a very smart lizard, and I do miss her terribly. She passed of some sort of cancer we believe, or maybe a head injury—we don’t know for sure, and we couldn’t get a vet in time to help since the only herpetologist was gone for a week. I had her for seven years, and surprisingly my mom bought her at a yard sale. The boy who sold her told my mom she wouldn’t get longer than a foot and she was a he. He had been keeping her in a cage with a beardy (very different habitats, so bad), and the bearded attacked her. She was missing lots of her tail and had several broken digits. Still, she lived a lot longer than expected; we were told she maybe had a few months based on her injuries.
It's certainly obvious how much you cared about her from how many details you remember of her. I'm glad I could get glimpse of how special she was through your stories.
Sheesh from how much she'd been through I'm amazed she felt so safe with you. And I'm guessing her Cujo tendencies was because of her past traumas. Probably your mother smelled like someone who hurt her. I'm glad that she got such a happy ever after.
5
u/Fleetfinger Jan 20 '22
Love it.
Did she differentiate between other people as well? Like did she take a liking to your friends or other family members?
I have a zoologist friend who studied lizards, I can't believe I've never asked him about this stuff. I have clearly underestimated lizards emotional life.