Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Lions and tigers and LIZARDS??? oh my...

Today started like most other days, with me doing pom poop patrol...scraping , spraying ( and trying not to gag ). While engaging in this lovely activity the dogs started going totally bezerk, nutso WILD! And Bikki, our blonde uber-alpha and who also happens to be 1) overweight 2) extremely bitchy in addition to being a bitch and 3) the only "hunter" among the poms, had something in her mouth and was shaking the living crap out of it, literally.
I rushed to try and rescue whatever it was, praying it wasnt a rat or some other rodent, only to find out it was a huge (ok, huge to me in the reptile dept. is anything over 3 inches and this baby was in the 9-10 inch catagory) jackson's chameleon.
And hanging from this prehistoric looking reptiles mouth was what appeared to be its stomachs ( do they have more than one ??) or something that could definately have been pre-born lizard babys. Bikki had bitten it then shaken her head repeatedly and whatever this reptilian's innards were, they came out through its mouth. Neophyte that I am when it comes to any and all reptiles, this was not ok.....actually completely and totally GROSS is what it was.
Still , I could not let the dog eat it ( ackkkkk ) or kill it...soooooo, using the dog ( clean of course ) pooper scooper, I gently (?) shoveled it into a shoebox and watched. It did not die.
So I called our pet store ( they sell these prehistoric critters AND the bugs they eat ...another hearty ACKKKKKK ) and agreed to take "it" for observation. Which they did ( after I had taped that sucker into a box sooo well - with air holes , of course , that even godzilla could not have gotten out.
Then I googled jackson's chameleon.
They do indeed give birth to live babys and what had come out this girl's mouth ( yes, ugly as she was, it was a she )
was preborn babies.
Didnt know ( thanks wiki ) they could have between 8 and 30 babies. But , yes a girl and yes , she is at the pet store. Will call tomorrow to see if anything survived...how it managed to live the 4 hours plus after the attack is beyond me.
So....according to Tia, this is just the kind of thing my mother would have done. And I do admit that my mom was willing and did rescue anything that walked...I just am pretty sure that she never rescued anything scaled, slithery or that had a tongue that could zap stuff from half-way across the room. Cats, dogs.....never lizards.
Still....one of His creatures ( have to ask Him at some point " Lord WHAT were you thinking...with mosquitoes, flies and reptiles????) and I have done the best I could.
I did not run screaming ( scream factor of reptiles is wayyyyy above flying cockroaches by the way ) and I have tried to get it help, while not allowing it to be eaten.
Brownie points, right ????

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