New rescue: Jack

Rescued a leopard gecko today.

By rescued, I really DO mean rescued. He was nearly dead, and wouldn't have lasted much longer.

I was in this pet store 2 weeks ago, and I saw him there then too,but I didn't have any money to buy him (they were charging $70) I thought he had maybe a day or two left in him then, and I felt terrible that I had to leave him.

I went back today, just in case, and he was still there, in the same spot, same position. He hadn't even moved.

Jack, in his cage at the pet store

I wasn't sure he was even alive, so I tapped on the glass. He moved his little left hand, just a little. I went up to the front of the store and asked the owner how much he wanted for the starving, half dead gecko. 

He said "Which one?"

I said "the one that looks like a little skeleton"

He said "show me." and went with me to the back where they had the non-fish animals.

I pointed him out, and said "THAT one."

He said "Oh, let me get rid of that for you..."

I said "No, I want to BUY him, how much?"

he said "$69.9..."

I interrupted him, telling him that was way too much to pay for a gecko that might not make it through the next 2 or 3 days.

He said "Well, what will you give me?"

I told him $15 or $20. 

He said he couldn't let him go for less than $25.

I told him I would take the gecko for $25.

 

When I got him out to the car, I noticed he was blind. That was why he hadn't been eating the crickets in his cage, he couldn't find them.

When I got him home, I offered him 3 small superworms. He ate them eagerly.

Christmas is almost here, and the scaley types are excited

I think my house is turning into a reptile rescue...

Seriously. Every time I turn around, there seems to be another person offering to give me a lizard, or a snake.

I reached my personal capacity with the second ball python. Kevin named her Morgan, for Morgan le Fey. I picked her up last night, and am still doing the shuffle to find her a spot.

Morgan, formerly known as Pants the snake.

Today, I recieved a redtail boa from my neighbors.  They saw me with Lilly and thought I would make a good home for their snake.

I told them I don't have any room for another snake, especially not that size. BUT, I know someone who does.

With her new momma

I succesfully placed that beautiful snake into a loving home. I was sad to see her go, even though she was only here a few hours,  but I know she is in a good home. That's what matters.

...and so it begins.

Christmas in Reptile-town

It's Christmas time, and that means... CHAOS!

All the lights are up outside, I think... Unless I decide to put up more.

I have kinda had that problem the last week or so. I keep changing my mind with the decorations.

I started out doing the tree all in silver,

 and I was satisfied... for about 2 days.

Then I added some ribbon:

Then I added blue:

then some little metal icicles:

I think it MIGHT be done now. No promises though.


A few of my friends posted this on my wall over the last few weeks:

and it gave me an awesome idea.

TINY SANTA HATS!!!

Lilly got hers already.


Smaug and Tia will have theirs soon, though I think Kaida may still be a little too small.

There will be pictures going out in my Christmas cards this year, because win.

Reptiles Anonymous

I did it again.

I said I wasn't going to get any more, but I did.

My cousin had a ball python that needed a new home. He was moving into a smaller place, and didn't have room for her cage.

I was on my way home from the Escondido Renaissance Faire, at Felicita park in Escondido, when I got the text from my cousin, asking if I could take in his snake.

He asked me to take her because he knew I would take good care of her, and because he could come and visit her too.

I named her Lillith, but I usually just call her Lilly.

Now she is one of the guardians of the living room.

Three dragons and a snake out there. I think it's pretty well guarded.

Out with the old, in with the new SNOW TOYS!!!

Went to the Salvation Army the other day to try to drop off Kevin's grandma's old mattress. When we got there, we found out they no longer accept mattresses.

Unwilling to waste the trip, we decided to go in and see if they had anything worth looking at.

When we got inside, we saw a massive crowd. We marveled at this, until we saw the sandwich board by the counter: "50% off ENTIRE store!"

We wandered, and I forgot about the sandwich board.

After awhile, Kevin found a pair of skis, with bindings, in almost new condition. Kevin dragged me over, and told me I should buy them. I tried to object, saying there was no way I could afford skis. He said "the tag says $20.00". I said it was a good price, but I shouldn't spend that... Then he reminded me about the sign.

Needless to say, I ended up going home with a pair of skis.
Nice skis.
For $10.00.

I went on Craigslist when I got home to try to find a pair of ski boots in my size. I found a BRAND NEW pair for $20.00.

When I went to pick them up, the guy selling them threw in a pair of skis without bindings, also brand new (still had the price tag on) also. He said he had bought them all for his wife, but she didn't like them, and he had waited too long to return them.

The best part? They're NOT pink!!

After all of this, Kevin decided to send me on a Craigslist mission for him. He wanted a snowboard, with bindings. He already had boots.

I found him a nice, nearly new board for $50.00. We picked that up today.

I can't wait for snow season.

Treasure Lake

Went on a backpacking trip up into the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend. Kevin invited me along with him and his friends from the base.

We headed up towards Bishop on Thursday morning. We left the house around 8, but had a VERY slow start and didn't actually get on the road till noon-ish.

The drive was beautiful, but with all of the stops we made along the way, it was also very long.

We got into town at Bishop around 5:30, and still had to go driving around looking for a place to get a fishing license.

We made it to South Lake around 7.

The sun was already setting behind whe mountains by the time we were ready to head up, but we went anyway. It got dark pretty fast.

It was only a 3 mile hike, but it was BRUTAL.
In that 3 miles, we climbed over 4000 feet. Two thirds of the hike was stairs carved out of stone, which after the first hour or so, I started calling "The Stairs of 'NOPE'". They were carved un-evenly, and ALL of them were cut higher than normal stairs. Many of them were as high as my knees, and a few were even higher.

By the time we got near the end of the hike, I was stopping to rest every 5 minutes. Kevin was taking his pack up a ways, then coming back for mine because I couldn't carry it anymore. I felt terrible for letting him, but if he didn't, we would have had to stop and spend the night right there on the trail.

After around Kevin's 3rd trip back for me, he had good news. He had found the lake. VERY good news, as we were starting to get worried that we had missed it in the dark. It was around midnight. We got to the lake, set up our camping area, and passed out.

Friday morning, I got to meet Kevins friends, Percy, Angel, and Percy's son, Clint. We all had breakfast together. Percy brought mint from his garden at home for tea, it was delicious.

After breakfast, we went fishing. Kevin and I didn't catch anything, but the other guys caught seven fish. Therewere five of us up there, so that was plenty.

We had fried fish, rice, ramen, and corned beef from a can for dinner. It was pretty good.

The wind kicked up during the day, and by dinner it was REALLY cold, so we all turned in early to try to stay warm. Once I was in my tent, I stayed up late reading. I brought my Kindle just for that - I was reading book 4 of Song of Ice and Fire (the Game of Thrones books)

Saturday morning, the wind continued to blow, and it stayed really cold. There were wisps of clouds in the sky, where Friday it had been brilliantly clear and blue.

We tried to fish for a little while. I really wanted Kevin to catch something, because it was his first time fishing.

The wisps became more frequent, and more dense. Angel made a crack about rain and suggested heading down early. I commented that, as cold as it was, it would be snow, not rain. The clouds didn't look dark enough for rain, but we started packing up anyway.

We headed down the trail, and the clouds got denser and darker. Sure enough, about halfway down it started to snow. Not a lot, but enough that we noticed.

I still needed breaks on the way down. The stairs were murder on my knees just as much as they had been on the way up. We lagged behind the other guys a bit, so most of the way down it was just Kevin and me.

Around 4:30, we were nearly in sight of the parking lot when Percy came back looking for us. He thought we had gotten lost or something. Angel had headed home already, but Percy invited us out for dinner on him, saying we had earned it.

He told us that he had picked the trail, thinking that it was a nice, short, beginner trail that we could use to get used to hiking. Apparently Angel had been new to this too.

We went to a little place right next to the ranger station in Bishop called Holy Smoke Texas Style BBQ for dinner. SOOO delicious.

Got home around 10pm Saturday night. Had an awesome time.