"For the Love of Lizards"

My daughter is in love with lizards, the ones you find in the south.  I believe they are called green anoles.  Every time we've gone on a trip recently, she's never failed to find one, actually several.  She even found some at the amusement park in southern Indiana, much to my surprise.  She found one at Holiday World in Santa Clause, Indiana this past July.  Ironically, I was born and raised in southern Indiana in Evansville and never once saw a lizard.  I suppose I would have had to have been looking for them.  She definitely has the eye for them.

The first time Amber had discovered lizards, while on a trip to New Orleans to see my mom, was a real adventure.  Amber had borrowed an old Cool Whip container, which we put some holes in so it could breathe.  She used this to capture them.  Little did we know that Amber had decided that these critters would be our new pets.  So, on the way back home to Fort Wayne, one got loose in the car, and we let it out at a rest stop in Kentucky.  We thought that was the end of it, but when we got back home to cold Northern Indiana, another got loose in the car.  I have no idea what happened to it, other than it disappeared in a hole in the floor board under the gas pedal.  Certainly, a twenty-degree temperature difference can't be very comfortable for a cold-blooded amphibian.  I doubt it lived through all of that, unfortunately.

The next time Amber had encountered some lizards was on a trip to St. Augustine, Florida.  Not only that, though, she had gotten to see her first armadillo, which was captured in my aunt and uncle's yard.  Apparently, in Florida, these animals can be somewhat destructive, so traps are set up, where the animals can be captured and released again at a state park.

Florida was such a complete paradise for Amber.  We went to the Alligator farm, where she sees such beauty in all of the reptiles.  Not only that, but it was her first trip ever to the beach.  She spent hours upon hours digging in the sand and finding these amazing, underwater shell creatures, which I had never seen before.  She had them in a plastic bottle, and they looked like something from some kind of an alien movie to me, but truly fascinating.  I'm not sure if my picture did the creatures justice. :-(

The most recent trip I went on with Amber was to New Orleans this past October to see my mom.  She found lizards at my uncle's and, of course, my mom's house.  She was so happy that she did not want to leave and was very unhappy that me and grandma wanted to leave to go to a festival.  She insisted we leave her at home, which wasn't going to happen.  In fact, while we were at the festival with all of the music and festivities, she was hanging around the trees, trying to find more creatures.

There was an incident at my mom's too with the lizards.  Amber had another plastic container, which she was keeping them in, and I was starting to pack our things to go home.  I asked her to bring me her stuff, and she insisted that she wanted to pack herself, which I thought very odd.  I even mentioned something aloud to my mom.  It's just not like Amber to take initiative to want to pack.  Ordinarily, she'd want nothing to do with it.  In fact, she was so adamant about packing herself that she was getting angry that I was anywhere near the luggage.  My mom figured something was up too and asked me if I should go check on the lizards in the garage.  I told her that that would not be a bad idea.  Sure enough, they weren't there, and Amber was trying to smuggle lizards back to northern Indiana again, but this time in a suit case to board an airplane.  Luckily, we found them safe and snug in the plastic container.  I'm not sure how airport security would handle us harboring lizards in our suitcase, especially with the heightened security these days.  Possibly, it could have been explained and maybe just laughed off like the chipmunk incident at her school, but who knows?

"Animals, Animals, Animals... Everywhere..."

If you've ever heard this song played during the 1970s on Saturday morning television sung by Lynn Kellogg, that's my daughter.  There is a definite difference between your average, typical animal lover and my daughter though.  Sure, there are animal lovers, who fall in love with every animal they see and who even go so far as adopting and accumulating a large amount.  What makes Amber stand out from your average animal lover/collector though is that she loves all animals, regardless of whether they are cute or furry.  In fact, some of her favorite animals, the average "neurotypical" person might think, "Why?"  The first exotic animal she'd become fascinated with was an Axolotyl.  I'd never in my life heard of one of these but kept an open mind about it.  I wanted to be able to try and look at it through her eyes and see what she appreciates about them.  So, if you look at an axolotyl, it is quite the unique creature, although I didn't run out and get her one.

Over the years, she's expressed interest in such animals as snakes, rats, bugs, hairless cats, albino animals, alligators, etc.  We have never had any of these as pets, although I keep somewhat of an open mind.  I don't gross out at the thought of a rat, (as long as it's not in my house), and I've pet a snake before, although I have not personally handled one.  I always want to try and be able to relate to my daughter and understand where she is coming from and give her guidance.  This can be a challenge at times though. 

There was a time, when she went through this alligator phase.  She had gotten this idea from watching Steve Irwin that she could tame alligators.  She literally would tell me about her plans to move to a warmer climate, when she was an adult, and start her career taming alligators from birth.  As any concerned parent would, I expressed my concern with this choice in career occupation.  It's not that I'm overprotective of my daughter in any way.  This is just a very dangerous choice in careers.  Alligators eat people!  They will rip your arms and legs off and have no remorse about it whatsoever.  She tried assuring me that none of that would be a problem.  I was not convinced.  Fortunately, this alligator obsession started when she was 15, so the threat of her turning 18 and leaving to make this dream a reality wasn't anything to be faced in the near future.  The other day, much to my relief, I had asked her if she was still passionate about alligators, and she said "no" and neither did she want to tame them either.  She realized they were dangerous animals.  I don't know what came along and changed her mind, but I am genuinely happy for it.

These animal obsessions go in phases.  The most recent obsession she has is with helping her pet turtle and hermit crabs molt, which apparently is a type of grooming process, where they shed their shells.  Her wanting to help these creatures out has caused our family some distress.  Firstly, the hermit crab, she had read something on the internet that had convinced her that she had to go to Pet Smart at 10 pm on a week night and buy it new shells to molt into or it was going to die.  I assured her it could wait until morning.  My husband tried assuring her.  That didn't work either.  It didn't end very pretty.  She wound up crying, and somehow, I managed to console her.  So, not all bad.  We did go and get the hermit crab a couple of shells the next day, which I made her buy with her own money.  This animal habit of hers can get rather expensive at times.

As far as the turtle, there was one night, where I could not get Amber to go to bed for anything.  She was bound and determined that her turtle's shell needed to dry out or it would somehow suffer.  I have no idea what on earth she read on the internet that made her come to this conclusion.  I lead a very hectic life, at times, and by 9 pm I'm just ready to put my daughter to bed and have some quality, alone time, move on to my next child I have to put to bed, and hopefully, have some time left over for myself.  So, we were squabbling about how the turtle really is going to make it and that she doesn't need to stay up with it.  She decides, at that moment, that she wants to be more grown up and put herself to bed, which in theory if it was true, would be great.  I didn't buy it.  She insisted that she's a big girl and that I should leave her be.  When she sees that I'm not falling for this, she decides that she was ready for me to put her to bed, which was a relief to me.  So, I put her to bed.  We do this routine, where I tuck her in, say prayers, scratch her back, put lotion on it, kiss both cheeks so that there isn't an imbalance, (can't kiss the mouth because of germs), turn-on-the-fan, and turn-lights-off ritual.  Then, I can leave the room.  It always seems so exhausting.  So many hoops to jump through, but I made it to the finish line or so I thought.  I go upstairs, only to find a few minutes later her shuffling around.  I had to give up at that point.  I was not spending my night arguing with her about the turtle.  She did eventually go to sleep.

Another time, there was an episode with a baby chipmunk.  It was the most adorable creature.  Amber and one of her friends rescued this baby chipmunk in our backyard from being our dog's little snack.  The problem was what to do with this small creature.  So my daughter gets on the internet and tells me that it says the baby has been abandoned and that we have to take care of it or it will die.--I'm sure you see where this is going.

I definitely was not wanting to adopt and care for a wild animal.  I'm not heartless.  It's just we already had gold fish, bettas, a dog, a guinea pig, and hermit crabs, and when Amber comes up with the idea of a new pet, I am Amber's safety net, when it comes to animal care.  Unfortunately, Amber as much as she loves animals, just isn't very sanitary, when it comes to keeping their habitats clean.  So, I call Animal Care & Control (AC&C), and they tell me to put the chipmunk back, where we found it.  If the mom doesn't return in about 3 hours, then she isn't coming back.  Amber dutifully listens, but the mom never came back.  So, I tell Amber she can keep the baby in a shoe box and give it a sugar-water mixture to keep it alive, until we were able to give it to AC&C for pet adoption.

Interestingly enough, the next morning, Amber was up early and went to school.  My cell phone rings at work, and it's the school nurse telling me Amber has a headache and isn't feeling well at all.  I ask if they need me to pick her up.  The answer was a "no", although she did leave her glasses at home.  Then, my husband gets a call, and Amber needs picked up.  Not only that, but she has a little visitor.  Amber had smuggled the chipmunk in her coat pocket and brought it to school.  My husband came and got the chipmunk and took it to Animal Care and Control.  As it turns out, Amber had stayed up all night caring for the chipmunk and that is why she wasn't feeling well.  With that news, Amber stayed at school the remainder of the day, until it was time for me to pick her up for an appointment.  When I got to school, I was finding humor in hearing people talk about the chipmunk that had been in the office earlier, knowing the full story behind it.  I could imagine Amber and her chipmunk was all the talk all over school and in the teachers' lounge that day.  So, even though my daughter does bring me some grief with her little animal escapades, I enjoy the storytelling aspect I derive out of it.  I will share more of these stories in future blogs.

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