Spike wasn't looking so good, and we were trying everything to help him out. Actually, I was trying everything. Of course, the family pets are actually mom's responsibility. Weird how that works out.
Unfortunately, Sam woke up Sunday morning to a very dead Spike.
Sam literally bawled. It was so heartbreaking to see Sam so sad, that I even shed some tears myself...for Sam. Sam was absolutely crushed.
Sam and Mary took the liberty to show me dead, rubbery, weird colored, Spike as I was standing over the oven cooking meat. I literally gagged. It's not everyday you are cooking and then have a dead lizard staring you in the face. Yes, staring. His eyes were stuck open.
Sam and Mary made it a nice little coffin and we planned to bury him that evening.
To top it off, I decided to clean out the lizard cage, because we planned on getting a replacement for Spike ASAP.
When I went up to Sam's room, I lifted the lid off the cage, and about 10 crickets jumped out. Five of them landed on me. I think I burned about 200 calories trying to shake them all off. Oh, the thought makes me itch still.
As I bent down to flick a cricked off my foot, I saw a millworm on the ground. The millworms were supposed to be in a closed container in the fridge. As I looked around the carpet, I realized the carpet was moving...or so it seemed. The entire container or millworms (100 of them) had been dumped on the carpet (thank you Luke) and worms were crawling ALL OVER the room!!!!
I don't think I need to describe the nausea that crept over me at that point. Worms and crickets. Lovely.
I eventually gagged my way through cleaning it all up, and vowed that our lizard days were done.
Until Sam came home, looked at the can with a dead Spike inside of it, and his eyes teared up. Oh, why do I have such a tender heart!
The next day...it was off to the pet store, where we are now on a first name basis, and I no longer gag at the smell every time I walk in the door. In order to get a refund for Spike, I had to bring the can with dead Spike in it, to the pet store. They prefer the dead animals frozen, but there is no way in ... I am going to put a dead lizard into the freezer next to the chicken and popsicles.
I gave William the "fun job" of holding the can on the way to the pet store. He happily complied. The whole time I was explaining Spike's death to the store clerk, William kept shaking the can and shouting "Spike is alive, he's moving!" That was awkward, to say the least, and somewhat disgusting.
The clerk asked to see the lizard. Bahahahaha! I refused to open the can to prove there was a 3 day old dead lizard inside. I told the clerk that he could do it, if he didn't believe me. He thought for a second and then just said he would take my word for it, and put the can in a drawer. Why a drawer?!?! Seriously, what on earth do they plan to do with it? Blah.
The store had to keep the can with the lizard in it, so Spike had no burial, but honestly, Sam is just fine, and I was not at all sad to not have to look at the dead lizard can anymore while preparing food.
I came away with a bearded dragon...yes, that is a lizard. A BIG lizard! And yes, it looks like a "bearded dragon." It can grow up to 2-3 feet long, and they even sell leashes for these things. We will deal with that when we get to that point. For now, it is about as long as my hand.
Sam is in love with Drew (his bearded dragon), and this is actually the lizard he has been begging for all along, but the thought of a 3 foot lizard in our house was something that I needed a lot of time to get used to. It is very cool, and very active. He plays with it daily, and I let Sam feed it the crickets now. We are done with the millworms, I refuse. We give it vegies instead, along with the crickets. Vegies don't crawl around on the floor and creep out mom. Vegies are nice.
Drew looks healthy and happy, and Sam's heart is mended. I think this lizard may just be here for a while. And hey, with a name like Drew, who wouldn't want to stick around.
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