Post by rocmills on Sept 3, 2004 12:05:43 GMT -8
So, a couple of weeks ago my mother-in-law comes home
from work and tells me that one of her co-workers has
rescued a large (the hand gestures used implied that
this rescue was even larger than the 2 8-year-olds we
already have) adult iggie from an abusive home. Good
girl, I reply, and what can I do to help? Well, it
seems this woman knew absolutely nothing about iguanas
and the only reason she took the poor creature in in
the first place was to save it from further abuse.
Could I print some information out for her? Sure. No
problem. However, deep in my heart I knew that once
she saw the requirements to properly care for an ig,
she would probably have a change of heart.
Sure enough, the very next day when mother-in-law came
home she said the woman no longer wanted to keep the
iggie and could we help her place it, or even take it
and place it for her? Well, keeping a giant ig with a
bad attitude wasn't possible for us - but we could
house it in the spare reptarium until we could find it
an appropriate home.
So my husband and I got ahold of this lady, Tammy, and
made arrangements to go and get the iguana. And we
weren't taking any chances, either. Despite the Vegas
heat, I wore a thick sweat suit and hat, had nail
clippers and Rescue Remedy in my pockets, and a very
large beach towel (we had nothing to put the ig in, so
we were going to wrap it up like a burrito for the
drive home), and great, thick leather gardening
gloves...
When we finally arrived at Tammy's house, we were
first greeted by a little yappy dog and a marmalade
kitten... and on the kitchen table was a small, metal
rabbit cage with young iguana in it. My husband and I
both looked around room and said "Where's the other
iguana?"
"That's it," says Tammy, pointing to the little green
thing in the metal cage.
I dropped the towel, threw down the gloves, opened the
cage and lifted the little fella onto my chest. What
a sweet thing. 6.5 inches SVL and that's being
generous. His color was bright, but his face was
covered with dark bruises and scratches from where he
had tried to get out of the rabbit cage. And his poor
tail! Sometimes I am ashamed to belong to the human
race. The people Tammy had rescued the ig from had
small children... and these children had stuck the
ig's tail into a running electrical fan.
Both sides of his tail look like someone took a potato
peeler to it. The right side is healing well, but the
left side is just awful. I'm not certain, but it
looks to me like the slice went right to the bone.
There is a huge "peel" of flesh that dangles from the
exposed wound, and it must still have some nerves in
it because even when we touch the part that should be
dead the poor little guy just freaks. We have been
treating the tail with betadine, neosporin, and then
bandaging it up with the antibiotic cream the vet gave
us when Bailey had the end of his tail amputated. The
only good part is that as awful as the wound looks
physically, there is no sign of infection - it seems
to be a good, clean wound.
from work and tells me that one of her co-workers has
rescued a large (the hand gestures used implied that
this rescue was even larger than the 2 8-year-olds we
already have) adult iggie from an abusive home. Good
girl, I reply, and what can I do to help? Well, it
seems this woman knew absolutely nothing about iguanas
and the only reason she took the poor creature in in
the first place was to save it from further abuse.
Could I print some information out for her? Sure. No
problem. However, deep in my heart I knew that once
she saw the requirements to properly care for an ig,
she would probably have a change of heart.
Sure enough, the very next day when mother-in-law came
home she said the woman no longer wanted to keep the
iggie and could we help her place it, or even take it
and place it for her? Well, keeping a giant ig with a
bad attitude wasn't possible for us - but we could
house it in the spare reptarium until we could find it
an appropriate home.
So my husband and I got ahold of this lady, Tammy, and
made arrangements to go and get the iguana. And we
weren't taking any chances, either. Despite the Vegas
heat, I wore a thick sweat suit and hat, had nail
clippers and Rescue Remedy in my pockets, and a very
large beach towel (we had nothing to put the ig in, so
we were going to wrap it up like a burrito for the
drive home), and great, thick leather gardening
gloves...
When we finally arrived at Tammy's house, we were
first greeted by a little yappy dog and a marmalade
kitten... and on the kitchen table was a small, metal
rabbit cage with young iguana in it. My husband and I
both looked around room and said "Where's the other
iguana?"
"That's it," says Tammy, pointing to the little green
thing in the metal cage.
I dropped the towel, threw down the gloves, opened the
cage and lifted the little fella onto my chest. What
a sweet thing. 6.5 inches SVL and that's being
generous. His color was bright, but his face was
covered with dark bruises and scratches from where he
had tried to get out of the rabbit cage. And his poor
tail! Sometimes I am ashamed to belong to the human
race. The people Tammy had rescued the ig from had
small children... and these children had stuck the
ig's tail into a running electrical fan.
Both sides of his tail look like someone took a potato
peeler to it. The right side is healing well, but the
left side is just awful. I'm not certain, but it
looks to me like the slice went right to the bone.
There is a huge "peel" of flesh that dangles from the
exposed wound, and it must still have some nerves in
it because even when we touch the part that should be
dead the poor little guy just freaks. We have been
treating the tail with betadine, neosporin, and then
bandaging it up with the antibiotic cream the vet gave
us when Bailey had the end of his tail amputated. The
only good part is that as awful as the wound looks
physically, there is no sign of infection - it seems
to be a good, clean wound.