The gift that keeps on giving....

Four or five years ago, a good friend of mine asked what she could get my two older children for their birthday. They share a birthday, and sometimes friends and family like to bless them with a shared gift. She suggested a gecko or anole.

Hummmm.....
now that's something that we hadn't experienced before, so being the animal lovers that we are, I said, "Sure". Nice little experience, you know. Probably live a couple of months, then die off, and we could check those animals off our list. Little did I know.

There is, of course, a long story about how the first day we got the anoles, geckos, whatever they are, of how they escaped their cage, remained hidden in our home, and we, unsure of whether or not we would ever see them again, faced with tear-stained faces, high-tailed it to our favorite friendly neighborhood pet store and bought two more what-ever-they-ares. As luck (or unluck)would have it, we discovered one night in the middle of the night that these creatures are nocturnal and love to crawl around in high places at night. We fortunately, or unfortunately, were than able to recover the original two. Now, our total was up to four. Anyway, it was a much longer, more dramatic story, but let's not meander down that road....

Instead, let's talk about what they eat.

Geckos and anoles eat crickets. These eat 2 dozen crickets a week, at a cost of about $3 per week X 52 weeks X about 4-5 years. You do the math - I'm scared. Plus, I would like to remain blissfully ignorant.

At any rate, over the years we (I guess I should clarify - I) have been waiting for these things to die off. We NEVER change their cage. They live in a terrarium type environment. We squirt water in whenever the environment looks dry, keep the plant watered, and throw crickets in every week.

Now, not only will they not die, but they had the nerve to lay eggs, which hatched (the pet store was very impressed. They said it was next to impossible to get these things to lay eggs in captivity, but for the eggs to actually hatch and the offspring live is also very unusual - just my luck).

So, I guess this is the gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving........






We had snakes once upon a time. Cute little corn snakes that my husband in particular adored. He bought me a pink snake for our anniversary once, and named it "Annie" (get it - Annie, short for Anniversary - now isn't that a romantic gift?). The "once upon a time" is because at some point the jewels in the family figured out how to open the cage, and they let the snakes out. We never did find them. I wish they would learn to take the lid off the gecko cage.

Anyone want a gecko or two? Or three? Or four?........