Well Phooey

Somehow I have a bad influence over iguanas. :( Poor little Noel went from being a tame, mellow iguana to being a nightmare almost as bad as Ramses within a few days. 

I have agonized over this for the past few days. It didn't help that on Monday night Junie B (the brat) managed to chomp my thumb in the very same way Ramses did earlier this year. A tiny bit deeper and I would have needed stitches. Ugh. 

Between a ton of Etsy orders, a tortoise being returned to me, and everything else in life, I've been overwhelmed. I don't have the time or energy to work with a crazy Iggy. 

So it's with a heavy heavy heart I chose to return Noel back to the store. :( 

Quitting is so hard for me. I hate to do it and I don't often do it. Once I finally committed to returning Noel, my heart felt lighter. 

I'll use myself as an example. Impulse purchases of animals are generally a bad idea. I feel lame that I bought a reptile I didn't want and then returned it. But better I fix it now than wait until things got worse. 

:( 

Ramses & the Patient Husband

For the last four months, I have worked with Ramses, my juvenile iguana. The harder I tried, the more he hated me. The more I touched him, the more I bled. 

My hands and arms were always scratched up and raw from his claws. But I kept trying to get him used to me. 

On Sunday, Ramses jerked around and got his mouth on me. Within seconds, he ripped open the back of my thumb. 

I needed stitches but was able to pull my thumb closed with Steri-strips. As I was dripping blood and tears on my bathroom counter, my patient hubby came to a conclusion--

It was time to let someone else try with Ramses. 

My husband has put up with a tank of a thousand roaches in my garage and tanks in our bedroom and frozen rats in our freezer and vet bills on our credit card. He has been SO patient! He hasn't often put his foot down, but he did with Ramses. 

On Monday, I gave Ramses to a friend of mine who loves iguanas. I hadn't even driven all the way home before she was saying how sweet Ramses is. 

Ramses? Sweet? 

Wow! 

I 'm grateful for a husband who intervened in my stubborn determination to not "quit" on Ramses even though I was failing at it. 

Sometimes quitting is actually a blessing. It's been a relief to not have an iguana bleeding battle every day! My thumb is healing and Ramses is thriving with his new owner. 

With the exception of Sancho, who is a sweetheart, I will now go back to my "No Iguanas" policy in rescue. 

Yesterday

It's been a rough couple of weeks- lots of sickly reptiles, lots of extra beardies I was babysitting before Christmas, a chronically ill little boy who can't go to school, fighting my own continual sickness, the holidays, etc. Thankfully, I was able to close my Etsy shop over the Christmas & New Year's holidays to have one less thing to do, but no Etsy meant no money coming in for rescue. 

Yesterday started off with me spending almost half of my saved rescue money on equipment that I have been given previously but gave away because I didn't think I'd use them. That was painful. I started wishing I hadn't been quite so generous and kept more of my equipment and financial resources. Buddy the snake was almost completely unresponsive and I noticed one of his eyes was starting to cave in, and so I scheduled a vet follow up appointment for him, knowing it would use up most of my dwindling funds. Blast! Then I ended up scheduling surgery next week for my youngest and tried to catch up on everything I didn't do last week when I was sickly.  It was a long, long day. 

After dinner, I pulled Milo out of his tank for snuggle time when I noticed he was gasping again-- just like he had when he came to me half dead last fall. His respiratory infection is back only after a month of being healthy. Blast! It was all too much. After Milo's last vet visit, the one remaining treatment option for his perpetual respiratory illness was a $145 blood test. (Luckily, Milo improved on his own and I didn't need the test then).  

Blast! Not enough money, not enough time, too much sickness, and not enough energy. I was feeling pretty low last night when I posted two updates on my blog about Buddy & Milo. 

Then, much to my speechless surprise and tearful gratitude, a blog reader donated enough money to me for Milo's blood test. 

Thank you! Thank you! I went to bed with a much lighter & happier heart. 

This morning, I found Milo zipping around his tank and discovered Buddy has started shedding and his good eye looks much, much better. They are both still sick, but not nearly as bad as I feared. 

Many thanks & much love to all of you who support my rescue and root for all the critters in my zoo. Your generosity and well wishes make my job so much easier. :) 

Because of my youngest's surgery and recovery this month, I have to scale back my rescue somewhat. My Etsy shop is open and, knowing me, I will still have half-dead reptiles finding their way to me anyways. 

And there's always still the ongoing work of getting Ramses, my juvenile iguana, to like me. We've started to call him "Evilen Froggen" from the Muppets. ;) He's adorable-- even if he hates my guts. Here's a pic of his morning stink eye for me: 

The Other Iguanas

I now have 3 iguanas. Why do I have 3? Because I don't want 4! ;)

Ramses still hates me though doesn't give me the stink eye as often as before. Pascal came a few days ago and still isn't sure he is my friend. 

Baby steps.... Months and months of baby steps. 

This is Pascal in my head. Up above is Ramses on my arm. 

A Tiger waiting to be Tamed...

I decided to be brave and put Ramses in the bath tonight. 

He was NOT amused. 

And I only bled a little bit- sharp claws! 

After the bath, I let him crawl up into the side. 

Slowly I reached out to pet him. 

It worked!!

I ended up wrapping him up in the towel and trying to give him more loves. 

He let me love on him for about 10 mins! Progress! 

At first, I could tell he was conflicted- like he couldn't decide if he wanted to bite me or let me pet him. After awhile, his tongue flicked out and he gave me a kiss. 

I love how he is holding my hand here. 

Baby steps forward... At least for a few moments, he want plotting my death. :)

Doing a Check up on an "Extremely Aggressive" Iguana

A friend rescued an iguana and asked me to take a look at him. He was surrendered by his owner because he was a mean & wild & aggressive iguana. 

Um. Sure. 

Absolutely ferocious, huh? (eyes rolling) My whole family loved on him and could swear he was purring. 

But then he left. <sigh> 

And I went upstairs to see if Ramses would respond the same way. 

"I vill eat you!"

Nope. He whipped his tail at me a couple times just to be clear where I stood with him. 

<sigh> Maybe by Christmas, right?? 

Ramses, rescue number 63

I adopted Cole out to a lady and took the crazy aggressive iguana she had rescued and couldn't handle. I figured I could slowly work with the little iggy and help him to be more tame. He was in a temporary 40 gallon tank downstairs until last Saturday when Fido went to his new home. 

Then he got put in a 55 gallon tank in my craft room. 

Ramsey still pretty much hates me. When I look at him, he appears to be plotting to kill me in my sleep.  See? 

Don't worry-- I think I'll be able to tame him down eventually. Maybe by Christmas he'll stop whipping his stumpy tail into the glass when I walk by. Maybe. 

P.S. 

We named him Ramses after this guy from Nacho Libre (one of our favorite movies!):