That was also the same day that I hopped in the Toyota and drove into Harlem / Morningside Heights to pick up my latest reptilian acquisition. A nice couple was adopting out a red eared slider and were in need of a taker without delay as they were leaving for employment in East Africa the very next day. Being that the Long Island Herpetological Society (LIHS) was to be having its 23rd annual reptile expo this coming weekend, I figured what the heck. I braved the roads the day after the big storm which was not much of a feat since there was very little traffic and went to pick it up. I thought I would keep it briefly and adopt it out at the show. The thing is, the show has been cancelled since I picked up the turtle and now I am turtle siting until I can adopt it out to a knowledgeable turtle keeper.
Even before I had considered getting that turtle, my son Brendan told me he had a friend who wanted to give away two bearded dragons. He said they were big, came with a big tank and some accessories. I had some thoughts on the matter but not for long and almost immediately agreed he should take them in. It did not happen, at least right away. As I said, the offer came before the storm, maybe a week ahead of it. It did happen though, that the two bearded dragons, a large tank of maybe 55 gallon size, and a bunch of BD care equipment showed up in my basement - today! I am guessing it is either a sexed pair or maybe more likely two females. I am almost positive they are not two males because they are not killing one another. They look healthy and if they are a pair, I may hold onto them and try to breed them. If two females, I may seek out a male to mate with them. Baby bearded dragons can go for up to about $75 apiece easily depending on color and at least for $25 apiece even if nothing special. That is if you have an outlet for them and I do have just that. I fed them tonight and they gobbled up several crickets each and each of them also chomped down on 3 large roaches of the species Blabica dubia. Yes, I have them in a tank in my house too, that is the roaches. I had been feeding the smaller adults of them to my Crested Geckos. They, the roaches, share accommodations with a few hundred crickets. The crested geckos share an enclosure with a toad.
Yesterday, I also received a shipment of Blue Tailed Fire Bellied Newts (Cynops cyanurus). I had a small colony of hem before I got ill last year but had to give them to a friend to care for while I was sick. Sadly, most of them died while in his care, probably due to contaminated food they ate. I think the new group of five of them that I just got will do much better. They will soon be sharing an aquarium with my tropical fish. I do not heat the fish tank and they will do just fine in with the fish as the others did before their untimely demise last year. I actually paid for the newts. I had been thinking of selling two or three of the five with the idea of getting enough for them to pa for the remaining ones that I would keep. Since that was also going to be at the LIHS show, tomorrow, and since the show has been cancelled, I guess I am stuck with all five of them.
Then there was the bird earlier today. I was sitting at my computer desk, in the basement this afternoon, and thought I saw something fly by out of the corner of my eye in the back room. Then, I saw it again and heard a chirp. I got up, in seer disbelief, to take a look to see if I was going crazy. There it was though, a sparrow and it was flying around in the boiler room. I tried to catch it and it flew upstairs to the first floor. Then it flew up to the top floor. It went into my daughter's room and got lost either under a dresser or the bed or behind some junk. I figured I would give it a break. When I went to go back upstairs, my wife told me that she and my daughter got it to fly out of the window that they had opened for it. Good for them because that meant they had to clean the bird doody off of the window where it had slammed itself once or twice as I tried to catch it and evidently knocked the shit out of itself. I am guessing it came down one of the chimneys because both are missing chimney caps after the storm.
Wow, the house is once again turning into a zoo but then again, it has always been a zoo of sorts!
All the best,
Glenn B
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