Post by Nanshe on Sept 26, 2004 3:24:15 GMT -8
It has taken me awhile to be able to sit down and write this to you guys, in fact it took me over 4 hours just to write this post because it was so emotionally draining - Iggy has passed away, and his death has affected me, my entire family, and many people from our Dojo so deeply that I cannot find the words to describe the pain....The thoughts, the feelings, the "visuals" & the very few memories we were able to create in such a short time - all SO damn painful. We all still cry off and on about it, in fact it's difficult for me to see the computer screen through the tears right now - and this is for an Iguana that we had for only 20 hours ... but for us it was a lifetime.
Let me start from the beginning.........
About 4 to 6 weeks ago, I noticed a very VERY large male Iguana at Critter Cabana, a pet store/rescue in a nearby town, the same place I rescued Angel from. He was in a cage seperate from all the other Iguanas - he was living with some turtles & birds. When I asked the owners why, they said he didn't get along with the other Iguanas.
The cages the Iguanas are in are at the very front of the store, in a very large window area (like a display window) that actually juts out from the main front of the building on each side of the front door. They are about 20 to 25 feet or so long, about 7 or 8 feet across, and about 10 or 11 feet tall - the entire enclosure is encased with standard glass except the roof. The Iguanas lived in the left side, Iggy in the right with the birds & turtles. So looking out the side window of Iggy's cage, he could see the main Iguana enclosure - and looking out the front window, he could see the sidewalk and Main Street. I hope I have described this accurately because this is very important.
Over the course of about 3 to 5 weeks, I would always peek in on Iggy as I entered the store, always noticing more and more about him. I had always wanted to hold him, but after finding out he was "very aggressive", and considering his enormous size, I thought better of it. Instead I would always walk around holding Alex - the large female that lived in the Iguana cage, who, if you watched the behavior of the Ig's in the cage for any length of time - you could tell was the Alpha Ig.
I always wondered about the temperature in the Ig enclosure, because everytime I would hold Alex, she was cold, very very cold, but then everytime I would show up, she wasn't under the lights either. A lot of the juvenile Iguanas liked to hang out on the lighting tract at the very top of the enclosure, which always concerned me too - but there was very little that could be done I assumed - to keep them away. They all seemed fine, and I never seen any of them actually touching the fixtures - just kind of hanging out behind them where it was warm.
I would always comment to whoever was working that day about Alex being so cold - and they always had a good explanation that seemed logical to me at the time, especially knowing she was the Alpha - but in looking back it was the 1st sign, and I stupidly missed it. I desperatly wanted to believe that these people were the kind that actually cared about Iguanas - after all - they never ever purchance Ig's, they only took in rescues, stating they didn't want to contribute to the importation problem etc... seemed very into Iguana's. They also seemed to know their stuff in regards to caring for them, as we would talk often.
Well, after peeking in on Iggy about 3 or 4 times over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, and each time noticing what appeared to be slight declines in his appearance and stuff - I finally asked to hold him. The man who was there that night, Andy, is the co-owner of the store. When I asked to hold Iggy, he told me he was "afraid to go in there because he was so aggressive", so I asked if it would be ok for my husband to get him out - and he said yes.
My husband brought him out, and just like Alex, Iggy was freezing cold. He didn't scamper, fight or do anything I would expect a normal, healthy Iguana to do - except gape (which intimidated me a LOT! He had a humungous mouth!).
We took turns holding Iggy, talking to him, looking him over etc... He had bird crap on him, he was very thin, cold, dark, and his eyes were slightly sunken in. My heart started to ache for Iggy.
We asked Andy about Iggy's past & where he came from. Andy told us that Iggy was 9 years old, and he used to be a classroom Iguana at a high school, then about 4 years ago they decided he was too big, so they put him in the basement of the high school - and that's where he lived for the last 4 years, roaming around on the heated pipes and stuff, until he came to Critter Cabana. I also asked about his diet and whether or not he was eating and drinking, because he was very thin and looked dehydrated. Andy said that he hadn't really been eating much, but he had seen him in the "pond" in the enclosure a couple of times recently. (Mind you, the "pond" is just below the birds perch, and consequently is where their poop lands
I didn't realize that at the time though). Iggy did have a food dish, but I didn't see a water dish for him.
Iggy had old burn scars on his tummy and all 4 of his legs - and I got angry thinking about educated, professional people, who are in charge of taking care of & educating our children, throwing a helpless, living, breathing, feeling, caring animal into a dark, deserted basement and allowing him to burn himself on hot pipes etc... Hubby and I decided at that moment we were going to bring Iggy home. We thought that maybe he wasn't eating or thriving because he was depressed or something, and we wanted to give him a home & love him - show him that not EVERY human being is a jerk!
I held and talked to Iggy for a long time that night. I told him I was going to come back within a week and bring him home. I promised him that. I also promised him we would take very good care of him, and that we wouldn't ever let anyone do anything bad to him again. I told him how much I loved him, and that I couldn't wait for us to begin our lives together. Now I don't know if animals know what we say or not, I like to think they do, but when I was talking to Iggy, I got such a feeling of....I can't even describe it... I just felt "connected", I honestly think Iggy knew what I was saying. He stared directly into my eyes the entire time I talked to him with his huge, beautiful hazel eyes. I remember feeling like he was looking directly into my soul. His eyes seemed to tell a story all their own - they seemed so incredibly "wise" - if that makes any sense at all.
When I put Iggy back into the enclosure, he took a few steps then stopped, looked back at me over his shoulder and stared at me for a few more seconds, then mosied slowly to his "spot" at the front of the enclosure and laid down.
I wanted to bring Iggy home that night - in retrospect we SHOULD have brought him home that night, but we didn't have enough supplies to support another Iguana, nor did we have an enclosure for Iggy - our Iguanas free roam in their respective rooms, so we didn't even have a leftover enclosure or anything. This was Saturday evening, September 18th.
Over the course of the next 5 days, we got set up for Iggy. A LOT of people from our Dojo chipped in where they could. They helped get his enclosure ready, building doors, shelves, lighting areas etc... Some chipped in to help cover the cost of ordering new supplies for Iggy like a Mercury Vapor bulb, thermometers, timers for his lights, you name it he was getting it - only the very very best! We also had people coming upstairs to help us get our living room ready to accommodate the enclosure, moving furniture etc... This was a collective effort of about 14 or 15 people - and everyone was very excited and anxious to bring Iggy home!
We finally finished his enclosure, but we didn't have his lighting yet, it wasn't due to arrive until Friday the 24th, then someone gave us a brand new "Combo Hood", and a Reptisun UVB light, and 2 basking lights - we had the essentials!
On Thursday evening, September 23rd, we went to pick Iggy up at 7:00pm, just as the store was closing. We paid the $25.00 adoption fee, and even got them to toss in his huge 1/2 log that he had in his enclosure, thinking having something familiar would help him adjust.
Andy was there when we went to get Iggy, and he pointed out to me that after we talked the week before about Iggy's temperatures etc... he had lowered his Merc Vap light and moved it so it would be over the spot he seemed to like to lay the most - right out in the front of the enclosure where Iggy could watch all the traffic and people going by. He said Iggy had been staying under it more - that made me happy - but he still wasn't eating. This time, Andy got Iggy out of the enclosure. Thus began our "lifetime" with Iggy. The next 20 hours were heartbreaking........
Let me start from the beginning.........
About 4 to 6 weeks ago, I noticed a very VERY large male Iguana at Critter Cabana, a pet store/rescue in a nearby town, the same place I rescued Angel from. He was in a cage seperate from all the other Iguanas - he was living with some turtles & birds. When I asked the owners why, they said he didn't get along with the other Iguanas.
The cages the Iguanas are in are at the very front of the store, in a very large window area (like a display window) that actually juts out from the main front of the building on each side of the front door. They are about 20 to 25 feet or so long, about 7 or 8 feet across, and about 10 or 11 feet tall - the entire enclosure is encased with standard glass except the roof. The Iguanas lived in the left side, Iggy in the right with the birds & turtles. So looking out the side window of Iggy's cage, he could see the main Iguana enclosure - and looking out the front window, he could see the sidewalk and Main Street. I hope I have described this accurately because this is very important.
Over the course of about 3 to 5 weeks, I would always peek in on Iggy as I entered the store, always noticing more and more about him. I had always wanted to hold him, but after finding out he was "very aggressive", and considering his enormous size, I thought better of it. Instead I would always walk around holding Alex - the large female that lived in the Iguana cage, who, if you watched the behavior of the Ig's in the cage for any length of time - you could tell was the Alpha Ig.
I always wondered about the temperature in the Ig enclosure, because everytime I would hold Alex, she was cold, very very cold, but then everytime I would show up, she wasn't under the lights either. A lot of the juvenile Iguanas liked to hang out on the lighting tract at the very top of the enclosure, which always concerned me too - but there was very little that could be done I assumed - to keep them away. They all seemed fine, and I never seen any of them actually touching the fixtures - just kind of hanging out behind them where it was warm.
I would always comment to whoever was working that day about Alex being so cold - and they always had a good explanation that seemed logical to me at the time, especially knowing she was the Alpha - but in looking back it was the 1st sign, and I stupidly missed it. I desperatly wanted to believe that these people were the kind that actually cared about Iguanas - after all - they never ever purchance Ig's, they only took in rescues, stating they didn't want to contribute to the importation problem etc... seemed very into Iguana's. They also seemed to know their stuff in regards to caring for them, as we would talk often.
Well, after peeking in on Iggy about 3 or 4 times over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, and each time noticing what appeared to be slight declines in his appearance and stuff - I finally asked to hold him. The man who was there that night, Andy, is the co-owner of the store. When I asked to hold Iggy, he told me he was "afraid to go in there because he was so aggressive", so I asked if it would be ok for my husband to get him out - and he said yes.
My husband brought him out, and just like Alex, Iggy was freezing cold. He didn't scamper, fight or do anything I would expect a normal, healthy Iguana to do - except gape (which intimidated me a LOT! He had a humungous mouth!).
We took turns holding Iggy, talking to him, looking him over etc... He had bird crap on him, he was very thin, cold, dark, and his eyes were slightly sunken in. My heart started to ache for Iggy.
We asked Andy about Iggy's past & where he came from. Andy told us that Iggy was 9 years old, and he used to be a classroom Iguana at a high school, then about 4 years ago they decided he was too big, so they put him in the basement of the high school - and that's where he lived for the last 4 years, roaming around on the heated pipes and stuff, until he came to Critter Cabana. I also asked about his diet and whether or not he was eating and drinking, because he was very thin and looked dehydrated. Andy said that he hadn't really been eating much, but he had seen him in the "pond" in the enclosure a couple of times recently. (Mind you, the "pond" is just below the birds perch, and consequently is where their poop lands
I didn't realize that at the time though). Iggy did have a food dish, but I didn't see a water dish for him.Iggy had old burn scars on his tummy and all 4 of his legs - and I got angry thinking about educated, professional people, who are in charge of taking care of & educating our children, throwing a helpless, living, breathing, feeling, caring animal into a dark, deserted basement and allowing him to burn himself on hot pipes etc... Hubby and I decided at that moment we were going to bring Iggy home. We thought that maybe he wasn't eating or thriving because he was depressed or something, and we wanted to give him a home & love him - show him that not EVERY human being is a jerk!
I held and talked to Iggy for a long time that night. I told him I was going to come back within a week and bring him home. I promised him that. I also promised him we would take very good care of him, and that we wouldn't ever let anyone do anything bad to him again. I told him how much I loved him, and that I couldn't wait for us to begin our lives together. Now I don't know if animals know what we say or not, I like to think they do, but when I was talking to Iggy, I got such a feeling of....I can't even describe it... I just felt "connected", I honestly think Iggy knew what I was saying. He stared directly into my eyes the entire time I talked to him with his huge, beautiful hazel eyes. I remember feeling like he was looking directly into my soul. His eyes seemed to tell a story all their own - they seemed so incredibly "wise" - if that makes any sense at all.
When I put Iggy back into the enclosure, he took a few steps then stopped, looked back at me over his shoulder and stared at me for a few more seconds, then mosied slowly to his "spot" at the front of the enclosure and laid down.
I wanted to bring Iggy home that night - in retrospect we SHOULD have brought him home that night, but we didn't have enough supplies to support another Iguana, nor did we have an enclosure for Iggy - our Iguanas free roam in their respective rooms, so we didn't even have a leftover enclosure or anything. This was Saturday evening, September 18th.
Over the course of the next 5 days, we got set up for Iggy. A LOT of people from our Dojo chipped in where they could. They helped get his enclosure ready, building doors, shelves, lighting areas etc... Some chipped in to help cover the cost of ordering new supplies for Iggy like a Mercury Vapor bulb, thermometers, timers for his lights, you name it he was getting it - only the very very best! We also had people coming upstairs to help us get our living room ready to accommodate the enclosure, moving furniture etc... This was a collective effort of about 14 or 15 people - and everyone was very excited and anxious to bring Iggy home!
We finally finished his enclosure, but we didn't have his lighting yet, it wasn't due to arrive until Friday the 24th, then someone gave us a brand new "Combo Hood", and a Reptisun UVB light, and 2 basking lights - we had the essentials!
On Thursday evening, September 23rd, we went to pick Iggy up at 7:00pm, just as the store was closing. We paid the $25.00 adoption fee, and even got them to toss in his huge 1/2 log that he had in his enclosure, thinking having something familiar would help him adjust.
Andy was there when we went to get Iggy, and he pointed out to me that after we talked the week before about Iggy's temperatures etc... he had lowered his Merc Vap light and moved it so it would be over the spot he seemed to like to lay the most - right out in the front of the enclosure where Iggy could watch all the traffic and people going by. He said Iggy had been staying under it more - that made me happy - but he still wasn't eating. This time, Andy got Iggy out of the enclosure. Thus began our "lifetime" with Iggy. The next 20 hours were heartbreaking........
