Missing my Baby Girl Sancho

Facebook told me today that three years ago today, Sancho joined our family. The original pictures I posted show how bad she was. She had SEVERE MBD when I got her. Her bones were rubber. Her fingers were bent, her spine was curved and hunched. She was so tiny! Her dumb owner was told multiple times to get calcium, get a UVB light, and then to get her to the vet. He "never got around to it."

This overhead shot shows how bad her spine was. If you Google "MBD in reptiles," this picture of Sancho comes up.

Sancho did manage to grow and become stronger. She was never healthy though and in frequent pain. We had multiple toes removed because they were like mini grappling hooks that caught on everything.

I loved this girl.

Aw, baby. I miss her! I made the hard choice in the fall of 2015 to put her and Turbo down. She had gotten to where she couldn't climb or walk well. It became unfair to try to keep her alive.

Sancho & Turbo's ashes are in a beautiful wood box on my mantle next to the ashes of my old man dog, Kip. It's a place of honor for all of them. Sancho will always keep a very sweet spot in my heart.

SO Perfect!

I just dropped off Junie. I couldn't even cry because I was so impressed and overwhelmed by his new owner and home. 

Junie's first owner was a male and male iggies tend to prefer males since the smell of Estrogen drives them crazy. 

His new owner picked Junie up and told him how pretty he was. He was so impressed with how alert and curious he was. 

It is practically perfect! I've waited a year and a half to find a better home for Junie than I could give him. I found it. I expect Junie to thrive more than ever now. 

My heart is full.  

My goal has always been to keep rescues until I can find the best home. And I succeeded. 

Junie

In searching for someone to take Midnight, I unexpectedly found the most amazing home for Junie! 

:O 

I had no intention of rehoming Junie, but the way this fell in to place was rather miraculous. I tried to find someone to take him several times last year with no success. 

I feel very good about this decision even though I'm sad. I'm giving both of these iguanas a chance for a better situation and that's always been my goal with rescue: the best possible life available. 

Here's a quick pic of Junie posing as a "Little Old Lady." :) He came downstairs yesterday (to see if that other beast was gone, I think). I realized how big he's gotten. And gorgeous. 

I can't say yet if I'll have updates on either iguana. Possibly? If I do, I'll pass them on. 

Here's Junie on his pillow which will definitely go with him. He loves his pillow. 

Gut Feelings and Guilt

My cheek is doing much better. I've got one Steri-strip holding the two worst cuts closed and when I go out, I cover it with a ladybug bandage. :) Here's me with Teddy on Sunday. 

I had many people offer to take Midnight from me, but none of them felt right in my gut. Since I started rescuing, I've always tried to "go with my gut feeling" and it's never lead me wrong. I couldn't seem to get a peaceful feeling with any of the offers. 

Finally, a friend of mine emailed me back and that's when I *finally* had peace. I'm taking Midnight to him tomorrow morning. My heart aches. I don't quit easily. If I start something, I do it full force until it's done. Quitting is so hard to do.

Midnight has been stuck in his cage since he attacked me Friday night. It feels me with such guilt and sorrow. I cannot let him out though; I can't even get close to the cage without him freaking out. :( His mouth is all torn up from him rubbing it against the bars. Breaks my heart. 

I'm sorry, Midnight, that your life so far has been so crappy. I'm glad that I loved you when I could. I know you'll find love and happiness to come. 

When it gets BAD

Midnight launched himself at me tonight. He ripped my cheek open with his teeth and scratched my glasses pretty good. 

The cut on the top of my cheek is deep enough to need stitches, but, thanks to my years of reptile rescuing, I'm super good at using Steri-strips and butterfly bandages to close up wounds. I've avoided quite a few visits to Instacare with these skills. 

My husband has the patient of a saint. He eats dinner while tortoises are waxing the floor with their parts and steps over poop to get to the bathroom and sleeps with at least 4 lizards in our room. 

He is a very very good guy. 

But when it comes to me bleeding, he puts his foot down and pushes me to make the hard decision. 

Midnight has to go. 

My heart is heavy. How can I adopt out such a demon? And when he's sweet, he's really sweet. I've made my family work around him and suffer through him for almost 3 months. They all are terrified of him. I have drug my feet, hoping it will improve. It hasn't. 

Sometimes being a rescuer stinks. And not just the poop that stinks. 

:( 

A Girlfriend for Midnight?

I thought maybe Midnight would prefer a stuffed Iggy to a pillow. So I introduced them tonight. 

Midnight was very shy at first. 

I even had the "girlfriend" bob her head a few times. 

He walked closer and closer and then licked her a few times. 

Nope. He wasn't interested. 

He kept crawling forward, bobbing his head, and stalking his prey--- me. 

Sigh. 

I watched Teddy the dog who watched Midnight who watched me. 

Iggy Hormones

Tonight Midnight climbed behind me on the couch, and, before I could move, he chomped my pony tail and wouldn't let go. 

Classic mating behavior. 

Since I was unwilling to let him mate with my hair, I pulled him off and put him back on his cage. 

Five minutes later, he climbed back again. This time I put a pillow as a blockade.

That appealed to him and he wouldn't let go. 

I moved him, still locked on, and the pillow to his cage where he proceeded to mate with it. 

The pillow even fell off the cage and he still didn't let go. I put it back on the cage and he kept at it. 

I have, many times, told people that during mating season, male iguanas can benefit from an "Iguana Love Sock." 

Guess what I'll be Googling tomorrow? 

ay yi yi

Welcome to the Zoo! 

PS. Can you see (again) why iguanas do NOT make good pets? 

Iguana Hormones

Iguana hormones turn iguanas (especially the males) into demons. Iguanas also can smell human hormones and that turns them into demons too. 

Midnight is hormonal currently. He's a terror to my family. This is yesterday's "Love Scratches." 

My teen daughter told me the demon iguana was out to get her, but I honestly thought she was being melodramatic. 

Today I watched him around her. Nope. He's being a demon to her. 

When she sits on the couch, he crawls over to her and chases her off. When she's on the floor, he launches himself at the ottoman to get to her. When she's on the rocking chair, he leaps onto the back. The second she leaves, he crawls back onto his cage under his light. 

Tonight I sat down in one rocking chair and she sat down in the rocking chair next to me. Midnight looked like this: 

He stood on the edge of his cage and stared at her. Because I was here, he didn't jump, but he did stare. Total creeper. 

Dr Folland told me of a couple who raised their iguana from a baby but when the wife got pregnant, the Iggy started to attack her. He would race across the room and launch himself at her face. :( 

When the iguana gets really demon-ish, my rescue brother sends links to websites for cooking iguana. Ay yi yi!! 

PS. Junie isn't normally afflicted with hormones until November and December and has actually been very sweet lately. If we had two hormonal iguanas, I would lose my mind! 

Midnight at the Vet

This iguana is a *darling* in public. Anytime someone looked at him, he was sweet and snuggly. 

See? 

When we were left alone? 

I did have cute hair-- until he messed it up. 

He rearranged the counter top. 

He tried climbing the blinds. 

The amputation site on his foot looks good. The tip of his tail that got caught in a cage looks okay. His mouth is a mess but we can't change the fact that he won't stop rubbing it against everything and making it bleed. 

I'll just keep treating it with Silvadene cream and hope he leaves it alone. 

I had to run in to the pet store to by crickets after the vet and I took him with me. Again, he was a sweetheart. Silly boy. The employees loved him! I love him too, but if he keeps chomping my family then I can't keep him. Plus he's hormonal right now and there's nothing we can do to fix that. 

Lock Up!

On Sunday, Midnight was roaming around the living room like normal. Without warning, he jumped up on the rocking chair were my hubby was napping and chomped his arm. Ouch! My son, trying to be helpful, grabbed Midnight and tried to pull him off, not realizing Midnight's mouth was still clamped down on flesh. Double Ouch! After a very long minute, I managed to get Midnight's mouth open and pulled him off my hubby. 

Ugh! Thankfully my hubby was pretty gracious about it and there wasn't a need for stitches. 

I decided to get Midnight a bigger cage and, luckily for me, my friend had a ZooMed Iguana cage I could have. I went and got it yesterday. 

Midnight was NOT happy to be contained. 

Today, he tried all day to escape the cage. :( By 3 pm, he has rubbed off all the scabs on his mouth and was bleeding. 

When I got home from running all my errands and picking up kids, I let him out so his mouth could have a break. He let me give him loves and then I put antibiotic cream on his mouth. 

Tonight I'm letting him sleep in his tree since he's content to be there. 

He has a vet visit Monday morning because the spot on his foot where his broken toe was amputated has been swelling. 

I'm not sure what's going on, but we'll get it checked out. And I'll have Dr Folland check to make sure Midnight's not permanently messing up his mouth. 

"Let me Help!!!"

I was printing off shipping labels when I heard scratching. 

Midnight wanted up! 

He licked my shirt a few times. 

Then tried to take a bite. 

Then kept climbing up to see what I was doing. 

He licked my computer a lot! 

He pushed a lot of buttons and brought up screens I've never seen. 

What is this screen?!?! 

Okay, time to get down! 

He licked my foot a couple times and then I put him in the window to bask. 

Midnight is like a reptile toddler. He has his moments of extreme brattiness and times when he won't anything I give him and times when he has to be wherever I am at. He's settling in and calming down though. I'm grateful for that. 

Photo Op

Midnight leapt on the back of the rocking chair and held himself majestically in the setting sun streaming in through our windows. 

I got up to take a picture of him. 

Yep. That's as good as it gets. ;) 

Tree Bed

Midnight has claimed this part of my ficus  tree as his own. He puts himself to bed every night around 6. And every morning I pull him off and put him under his heat lamp. 

I'm not sure what he'll do when he gets to heavy for that branch. He's growing very fast and I can't imagine it holding him up much longer. 

A Sneaky Video of Junie

Lately, Junie has let me rub his head and his "love buttons" and he gives me kisses (flicks out his tongue at me). But I can't get close to him with my phone because he hates it. So I set it up away from him and started filming. It's not the greatest quality, but it shows that he can be nice-- well, at least until I start cutting his razor nails.

And yes, it shows that I do adore the little brat. ;) Especially when he gives me "kisses."

His side jowl buttons are so big and fluffy now! I love them! I tell him they are his "Love Buttons" and I give them a good rub down. He loves his head rubbed and his flap stroked and his buttons rubbed. But the moment I move to his back, his niceness is over.

Midnight's Trip

After Midnight helped me with my Etsy orders, I took him for a ride. 

He wasn't too sure about it. 

He drove with me to get the carpool kids. 

I'm hopeful that I can get him to enjoy car rides. He doesn't mind the harness at all. 

A Helper in my Etsy Shop

I'm trying to get almost 30 orders out today and I have a room helper. 

Midnight was basking in the sunny window, but now he's watching what I'm doing.