An apology to my first iguana

[joseph2]

This is something I rarely talk about, but I believe my first iguana, Ghosty, deserves some space. When I was really young, I tried my first experience at raising a green iguana. Oh, how I loved (And still do) the look of these gorgeous creatures. They are so impressive looking when full grown. Can any other animal in the world look as wonderful as a large, full grown green iguana? I think not. Anyway, being young and stupid and not really knowing anything about the reptile world, I thought I would put Ghosty in an aquarium with water in it and put him in the direct sunlight to warm him up while I ate dinner. Of course, this was the middle of July and extremely hot. You can imagine what I found when I was done with supper and checked on my iguana. The water was almost boiling hot and Ghosty was stiff as a board. God was I sad. I cried for days just thinking how bad he must have suffered before he passed away. Ghosty, I just want to say "I'm so sorry of my ignorance and immaturity towards you. You deserved a lot better, and I pray you're in a much better place now. I will always love you and you will always have a special place in my heart." Thanks for letting me get that out.

Joe

[Tesa]

Awwww Joseph, that's sad. I'm sorry that BOTH of you had that experience.
The important thing now tho is that you have educated yourself and continue to do so.
Also, by sharing your experience, you can help educate others so their igs can have a good life.

[SurvivorSteph]

I agree with Tesa, and I know how you feel, Joseph. In the early 1990's we had an iglet. We killed him with our ignorance. That's a large part of why I feel like I owe Gill so much. I want him to have the best care possible in captivity. For his good, and in honor of poor Iggy.

Glad you shared that with us.

[captkiddabc]

Thank you for shareing that with us. It is very sad to lose our iggys do to our own stupidity! It happened to me also so you are not alone in that feeling of guilt. All we can do now is learn and teach others not to make the same mistakes we made and give our iggs a better life now.

[dominick]

Hi Joseph-

Such a sad and common story among Iguana owners.

There are a lot of Ig owners who had similar experiences with their first Iguanas. Most don't discuss them openly because of the guilt over having killed them with ignorance.

All we can do is learn from the experience and teach others all we can about this magnificent creature.

I'm sure Iggy is basking in the Rainbow Tree, waiting patiently for you to join him. Know that he is no longer in pain, or danger, he peacefully eats and basks his days away.

Thanks so much for sharing. As Tesa indicated, it educates others and just might save an Iguana or two.

[Merlin]

Dominick said:

There are a lot of Ig owners who had similar experiences with their first Iguanas. Most don't discuss them openly because of the guilt over having killed them with ignorance.

I agree. There are so many (now) successful Ig owners that share the guilt over what we did early on in our iguana keeping adventures. All we can do is tolearn to not do it again!
That's the beauty of places like this (a tip of the hat to Tesa and Dom) where not only can you get info on how to better care for our green owners but to share stories like that so others don't make the same mistake.

[joseph2]

Thanks for all your support. Indeed I have learned (As we all have) from youthful mistakes. One thing is for sure; Zilla will live a long, wonderful life and I will make sure that he will never suffer and be the happiest, most awesome junior T-rex to roam the Earth!!

Joe

[rocmills]

I didn't have my first ig for very long. It was given away to friends of the family because my stepfather was and ***hole. I heard reports that it spent most of it's time on the back of their couch... and it didn't move once, for over a week... then they noticed this smelll... I cried and begged forgiveness of the animal gods over that one. That they ignored him for so long, that he lay dead at their heads while they sat and watched television.... That was when I was a minor, unable to control the world around in any small measure. Now I do my best to make sure that everyone who shows any interest in iguanas knows all the ups and downs of owning these marvelous creatures.

Thanks for sharing your story, Joseph. Sharing such experiences as yours help to ensure that other iguanas don't suffer the same fate.

--Roc

[SurvivorSteph]

Roc, that's a horrible story, and I'm so sorry that you had to know the fate of your poor first ig.

I'm glad that you, like all of us, are using that to help igs now.

[Tesa]

**ugh**
Makes ya just wana slap people doesn't it?

[URSULA]

I agree with you Tesa.

[Tesa]

Patrick......did you happen to READ the part of Rocs post where she said the ig laid on the back of the couch for a week without moving?? and then they realized it was DEAD cause it started stinking!!
A person doesn't have to have knowledge of iguanas to know there's someting wrong if an animal doesnt MOVE for days. They simply didn't give a sh**.
I certainly don't condone violence, but a cyber slap never hurt anyone.

[Merlin]

Tesa in this case I am SURE that a bit of physical contact along with that cyberslap would have been MUCH more satisfying! Some people are just a waste of good air!

[prism_wolf]

I also owe apologies to two igs earlier in my life. The first one never made it 6 months...I was 14 yrs old...I'm almost 40 now. The other was given to me already an adult of 7 years. He was fed canned dog food, broccoli and carrots. How he survived that long I will never know. He had real sun every day in my care and the original owners care...I think that was the only thing that DID keep him alive so long.

[Dudley]

Merlin said:

Some people are just a waste of good air!

I can't find a smiley that shows I'm holding my breath.
I am so sorry for your losses, so far I've done good with my first iglet, I'm still in the fragile times of his life and I pray every night that I keep doing good. Working at a municipal zoo, you get the terrible opportunity to lose animals that you have come to love, whether its by death or surplus sales. Since I've been working there, I have had to pull a drown primate from a pond, lost one of my best friends (a 4 month old Pronghorn that I was bringing home and bottle feeding died of pneumonia 2 days after they decided that I couldn't bring her home anymore). A 13 year old raccoon, a momma wallaby with a joey in her pouch, and then lost the joey 1 week later. I've sadly experienced the loss of a 9 foot Columbian Red Tail Boa that we rescued from the dead animal drop at the animal shelter which later died from a loss of vital fluid and respiratory failure. I didn't name all of them but, with all of these cases everything was done that could be done. Part of life is death, sadly it's not a big deal to a lot of people when an animal is lost to un-natural causes. Ignorance and cold hearts come in large numbers, as long as there are people like us around, the study of animal-owner love has a chance to thrive a while longer.