Post by mark42 on Dec 19, 2003 14:54:21 GMT -8
I posted this on another Iguana Enthusiast Board last
week, and thought maybe y'all might enjoy it. You can
consider it my "intro" and "About Me" post.
BTW, I posted it in a Motorcycle Related forum too (lots of
online friends there...), so if I say things that obviously anyone
on this board probably already would know, it was actually for
their benefit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
My son, who'll be 6 in January, is a lizard fanatic.
He eats, drinks, speaks, and dreams about lizards.
Lizards are his life, especially iguanas. My wife
reads to him from books about iguanas. Now, he's
probably only seen an iguana twice in his life. He
does like chasing lizards at his grandparents house
in Northern California, and has tried to get us to
move to California, because there are lizards there.
On Monday, I was going through the freebies section of
my company's online classifieds, and saw an ad for
"A 3 foot iguana, with cage". I pasted the ad text
into an email and sent it to my wife, half joking
(probably more than half joking).
Well, she got excited about how excited it would make
him if we got it for him for Christmas. When I got home,
she had emailed and phoned the person giving it away,
and said she wanted to go get it, if it was okay with
me. So, after finding out that the cage was 4' x 4' x 3',
she decided to take my truck and go get it that same evening
while I watch the kids (I have a daughter too). This way,
she could get it w/o them seeing it, and bring it around
the back of the house and put it into a room we use for
storage, which is already locked (usually it is anyway)
to hide Christmas presents.
He will be so excited when he sees it he probably
will be unable to contain himself... I expect he'll
jump up & down, run around in circles, and nearly
pee his pants from the excitement.
Well, it was a long drive, only because of the rush hour
traffic. When she got home, the iguana was in a box, so
we unloaded the cage. Now, this cage was not built by
a person with carpentry talent. The main frame it 2x2's,
but the vertical post at each corner is made of two
1-1/2 foot lengths spliced together with duct tape.
There is window screen stapled to the frame, and a door
on hinges at one of the sides.
As you can imagine, the frame flexed and tweaked when
it was loaded into and out of the truck (an SUV). That
caused some tears at the staples, but they just matched
the previous tears that had been duct taped. Since it
was now 9:30 pm, and I get up at 4:30 am, I left my
wife to duct tape the holes shut to avoid an escape.
Well, I wanted a look at the iguana (we're reserving
the honor of naming him for my son, since it's supposed
to be his pet, at least technically) before I went to
bed, so she took him out of the box... oh my, 3 foot
iguana means LARGE. I held him for just a minute,
and he only hissed at me once. Having raised birds before,
I wasn't too concerned about it, I figured he was just
stressed and intimidated and grumpy from being shoved
into a box and taken for a long ride in the truck.
The next morning, I went into the "billiard room",
which may someday have a pool table in it, if we ever
buy a pool table, but for now we store boxes in it.
I wanted to see it I should reinforce any of the repairs,
being a paranoid, thorough, and detail oriented
aerospace engineer as I am. But, I got distracted
when I saw the iguana on the screen, stretched
vertically, from the top to the bottom of the cage.
I decided it was a perfect opportunity to measure him
to get an accurate length (about 32-1/2"). I then
rubbed his belly through the screen with my finger.
Well, I never did check the integrity of the cage.
Keeping a 3 foot iguana hidden for 2-1/2 weeks before
Christmas is not an easy thing to do... one can't
keep making trips to the billiard room and sneaking
in through as narrow an opening as possible to
avoid having the kids see over your shoulder and
into the room, so when I got home, my wife hadn't
checked on the iguana yet. She asked if I could
go have a look (in code language, of course), and
I did. I called to her "... can you come down here?".
She asked "how is he" I said "I don't know... I can't
find him" She said "uh-oh". We looked under and behind
everything hoping we would look under the bed or behind
a box and shine the flashlight on a nice big green iguana.
No luck. So, we started at one corner, and carefully and
methodically picked apart the room (full of boxes). We
didn't want to miss any hiding places, and didn't want
to risk moving one box and having another box fall on
the iguana. Eventually, we were down to one corner.
I was handing boxes to my wife by placing them on the
bed, and she would move them across the room, checking
inside if they were open. One box had some lifejackets
at the top, and so it needed to be looked through because
there was potential to burrow into a comfortable spot
(this was not the first box that held such potential).
Well, after a few seconds, there was a startled scream,
and I knew we had found our lizard. It's funny, but, even
though you know what you are looking for, after not finding
it in so many boxes, you sort of expect each box to be the
wrong one, and when suddenly your face-to-face with a 3-foot
dinosaur / godzilla lookin' thing hissing at you, even
though it's exactly what you're trying to find, it is
startling.
My wife tried to pick it up, but it kept hissing, and
whipping its tail (they use their tails like a bull-whip,
and I've heard they can raise a welt when they get it
just right). So, being the husband, of course the dangerous
tasks always fall into my realm of responsibility. I was
feeling a bit goofy, so I said "Watch, I'm Steve Irwin
(the crocodile hunter)" and proceeded to distract him with
one hand and try to sneak behind him with the other. But,
they have reeeaaly good peripheral vision. Every time my hand
would sneak up, he'd whip his tail, and hiss at me.
Eventually, I only put the one hand I was using to distract
him up where he could see it, and then brought the other
hand up from behind him in one quick swooping motion and
(gently, though quickly) grabbed him at the back of the neck.
In perfect "Crocodile Hunter" form, he wriggle and writhed
and wrapped himself around my arm. After awhile I managed
to calm him down by gently petting him to soothe his fear.
I found it also helps to hold him up high... they like
to be up high - I think it's because they can see
predators from a high vantage point, so it makes them
feel safer. That worked well for a bit, but the suddenly he
didn't want me to hold him, and began to struggle wildly.
Previously, we had found that he likes to climb up onto
a person's shoulder (that high vantage point thing again),
so I let him dig his (sharp!) claws into my shirt and
go wherever he wanted to. I heard him hiss about 2"
from my ear, and was glad I don't wear an earring anymore...
I was afraid I was about to lose an earlobe, so I put
him in the box we transported him in the night before
(with a lot of help from my lovely assistant), which he
was not happy about, and resisted with all his might.
Well, that took about an hour, and by the time I took all
of the duct tape off (old and new) and refurbished the frame
a bit, and then put new duct tape at all of the potential
portals of escape, it was 10 pm. All I wanted to do that
evening, the one thing I'd looked forward to all day...
was to go home and go to bed early (like 8:30 pm ish).
Well, the duct tape has held, and the iguana seems happy
for the most part. The people we got him from said they
"rescued him", which makes me think he may have been
handled somewhat roughly in the past. They said they
were getting rid of it because their 12 yr old, who
the iguana belonged to, had found that it doesn't like
him. I suspect it had been ignored, possibly neglected
in recent times. It seems a little skittish, which I
suspect is due to not enough human contact lately.
I took him out and held him the morning after the escape
escapade, and he crawled up to my shoulder, and then
stuck his head under my chin. To a casual observer it
probably would have seemed like he was trying to nuzzle
up against me and be affectionate, or maybe just to get
warm... but I knew better... I could feel his breath
against the skin of my throat, and began to become concerned
that at any moment he might rip a vein out of my neck!
I got a little spooked, so with as calm an appearance as
I could muster, I put him back inside the cage.
week, and thought maybe y'all might enjoy it. You can
consider it my "intro" and "About Me" post.
BTW, I posted it in a Motorcycle Related forum too (lots of
online friends there...), so if I say things that obviously anyone
on this board probably already would know, it was actually for
their benefit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
My son, who'll be 6 in January, is a lizard fanatic.
He eats, drinks, speaks, and dreams about lizards.
Lizards are his life, especially iguanas. My wife
reads to him from books about iguanas. Now, he's
probably only seen an iguana twice in his life. He
does like chasing lizards at his grandparents house
in Northern California, and has tried to get us to
move to California, because there are lizards there.
On Monday, I was going through the freebies section of
my company's online classifieds, and saw an ad for
"A 3 foot iguana, with cage". I pasted the ad text
into an email and sent it to my wife, half joking
(probably more than half joking).
Well, she got excited about how excited it would make
him if we got it for him for Christmas. When I got home,
she had emailed and phoned the person giving it away,
and said she wanted to go get it, if it was okay with
me. So, after finding out that the cage was 4' x 4' x 3',
she decided to take my truck and go get it that same evening
while I watch the kids (I have a daughter too). This way,
she could get it w/o them seeing it, and bring it around
the back of the house and put it into a room we use for
storage, which is already locked (usually it is anyway)
to hide Christmas presents.
He will be so excited when he sees it he probably
will be unable to contain himself... I expect he'll
jump up & down, run around in circles, and nearly
pee his pants from the excitement.
Well, it was a long drive, only because of the rush hour
traffic. When she got home, the iguana was in a box, so
we unloaded the cage. Now, this cage was not built by
a person with carpentry talent. The main frame it 2x2's,
but the vertical post at each corner is made of two
1-1/2 foot lengths spliced together with duct tape.
There is window screen stapled to the frame, and a door
on hinges at one of the sides.
As you can imagine, the frame flexed and tweaked when
it was loaded into and out of the truck (an SUV). That
caused some tears at the staples, but they just matched
the previous tears that had been duct taped. Since it
was now 9:30 pm, and I get up at 4:30 am, I left my
wife to duct tape the holes shut to avoid an escape.
Well, I wanted a look at the iguana (we're reserving
the honor of naming him for my son, since it's supposed
to be his pet, at least technically) before I went to
bed, so she took him out of the box... oh my, 3 foot
iguana means LARGE. I held him for just a minute,
and he only hissed at me once. Having raised birds before,
I wasn't too concerned about it, I figured he was just
stressed and intimidated and grumpy from being shoved
into a box and taken for a long ride in the truck.
The next morning, I went into the "billiard room",
which may someday have a pool table in it, if we ever
buy a pool table, but for now we store boxes in it.
I wanted to see it I should reinforce any of the repairs,
being a paranoid, thorough, and detail oriented
aerospace engineer as I am. But, I got distracted
when I saw the iguana on the screen, stretched
vertically, from the top to the bottom of the cage.
I decided it was a perfect opportunity to measure him
to get an accurate length (about 32-1/2"). I then
rubbed his belly through the screen with my finger.
Well, I never did check the integrity of the cage.
Keeping a 3 foot iguana hidden for 2-1/2 weeks before
Christmas is not an easy thing to do... one can't
keep making trips to the billiard room and sneaking
in through as narrow an opening as possible to
avoid having the kids see over your shoulder and
into the room, so when I got home, my wife hadn't
checked on the iguana yet. She asked if I could
go have a look (in code language, of course), and
I did. I called to her "... can you come down here?".
She asked "how is he" I said "I don't know... I can't
find him" She said "uh-oh". We looked under and behind
everything hoping we would look under the bed or behind
a box and shine the flashlight on a nice big green iguana.
No luck. So, we started at one corner, and carefully and
methodically picked apart the room (full of boxes). We
didn't want to miss any hiding places, and didn't want
to risk moving one box and having another box fall on
the iguana. Eventually, we were down to one corner.
I was handing boxes to my wife by placing them on the
bed, and she would move them across the room, checking
inside if they were open. One box had some lifejackets
at the top, and so it needed to be looked through because
there was potential to burrow into a comfortable spot
(this was not the first box that held such potential).
Well, after a few seconds, there was a startled scream,
and I knew we had found our lizard. It's funny, but, even
though you know what you are looking for, after not finding
it in so many boxes, you sort of expect each box to be the
wrong one, and when suddenly your face-to-face with a 3-foot
dinosaur / godzilla lookin' thing hissing at you, even
though it's exactly what you're trying to find, it is
startling.
My wife tried to pick it up, but it kept hissing, and
whipping its tail (they use their tails like a bull-whip,
and I've heard they can raise a welt when they get it
just right). So, being the husband, of course the dangerous
tasks always fall into my realm of responsibility. I was
feeling a bit goofy, so I said "Watch, I'm Steve Irwin
(the crocodile hunter)" and proceeded to distract him with
one hand and try to sneak behind him with the other. But,
they have reeeaaly good peripheral vision. Every time my hand
would sneak up, he'd whip his tail, and hiss at me.
Eventually, I only put the one hand I was using to distract
him up where he could see it, and then brought the other
hand up from behind him in one quick swooping motion and
(gently, though quickly) grabbed him at the back of the neck.
In perfect "Crocodile Hunter" form, he wriggle and writhed
and wrapped himself around my arm. After awhile I managed
to calm him down by gently petting him to soothe his fear.
I found it also helps to hold him up high... they like
to be up high - I think it's because they can see
predators from a high vantage point, so it makes them
feel safer. That worked well for a bit, but the suddenly he
didn't want me to hold him, and began to struggle wildly.
Previously, we had found that he likes to climb up onto
a person's shoulder (that high vantage point thing again),
so I let him dig his (sharp!) claws into my shirt and
go wherever he wanted to. I heard him hiss about 2"
from my ear, and was glad I don't wear an earring anymore...
I was afraid I was about to lose an earlobe, so I put
him in the box we transported him in the night before
(with a lot of help from my lovely assistant), which he
was not happy about, and resisted with all his might.
Well, that took about an hour, and by the time I took all
of the duct tape off (old and new) and refurbished the frame
a bit, and then put new duct tape at all of the potential
portals of escape, it was 10 pm. All I wanted to do that
evening, the one thing I'd looked forward to all day...
was to go home and go to bed early (like 8:30 pm ish).
Well, the duct tape has held, and the iguana seems happy
for the most part. The people we got him from said they
"rescued him", which makes me think he may have been
handled somewhat roughly in the past. They said they
were getting rid of it because their 12 yr old, who
the iguana belonged to, had found that it doesn't like
him. I suspect it had been ignored, possibly neglected
in recent times. It seems a little skittish, which I
suspect is due to not enough human contact lately.
I took him out and held him the morning after the escape
escapade, and he crawled up to my shoulder, and then
stuck his head under my chin. To a casual observer it
probably would have seemed like he was trying to nuzzle
up against me and be affectionate, or maybe just to get
warm... but I knew better... I could feel his breath
against the skin of my throat, and began to become concerned
that at any moment he might rip a vein out of my neck!
I got a little spooked, so with as calm an appearance as
I could muster, I put him back inside the cage.