If anyone ever told me I could get attached to a reptile with a snake-looking tail, I would have laughed at them….then along came Randall.
My older son had always wanted a lizard, and when he was younger, my answer was always “no way.” That’s because they looked so cold and sneaky, and well, snake-like. I had absolutely no idea how fun and lovable certain kinds of lizards could be.
After we moved into our new house, we were out enjoying our local pet store, just for fun, and to my utter disbelief my husband pointed out this Bearded Dragon lizard to my son and suggested we buy it for his room!! I gave him one of “those” looks, but it didn’t matter…an hour later we were driving home with a new member of the family.
His sleeping quarters were in my son’s room, but that didn’t stop him from exploring the house! I really didn’t mind, I could see he was gentle and my son obviously loved him…and more importantly, he wasn’t prone to having “accidents” outside of his cage, whew!
He did cause a little mischief on one of his early explorations when he somehow managed to crawl behind the kick-board in the kitchen and get stuck under the cabinets. Of course, this happened when we were due to meet up shortly with friends…but we couldn’t very well leave a dragon under the cabinets while we were away. My husband finally had to pull out the crowbar, ripping a piece of the kick-board to extract Randall, but the important thing was, Randall was safe and we would not have to keep our friends waiting.
In the beginning I managed to pet Randall on the head, he liked that, but I was not too keen on the idea of holding him. I just couldn’t get past that his skin looked so snakelike, especially his belly, and his tail, well, that looked just like a snake minus the head.
I was slightly horrified when my son asked if I would be Randall’s caregiver while he took a senior trip to Arizona for a week, oh dear. The training began. I had to get used to holding Randall, not just tossing lettuce and crickets into the cage and checking his lights.
Well, it was wintertime, and for the week his master was gone, Randall and I became Hallmark-watching, fireside companions!
I would hold him in the evenings against my fuzzy red robe, and he would “snuggle” in till the movie ended. I would then, reluctantly (can you believe) go put him back in his cage for the night. Yes, Randall and I were now buddies:)
Of course, I couldn’t be in charge of Randall for a week without giving his cage a little make-over….a woman’s touch so to say:
We enjoyed Randall for close to four years. During those years, he endured many tail-chasing episodes from our cat, but never allowed himself to trust our dog, Princess. If she entered the room, he would at times turn partly black, indicating anger or stress, and kept a wary eye on her till she finally left his presence.
We will always miss our little buddy, especially my son, but we have many fond, loving memories of the lizard who crawled into all of our hearts to stay.♥
Randall and Miss Kitea enjoying a “fireside chat.”
♥Jen
Birds, Blooms and all things Beautiful 