She waits for him

She waited, checking through the window glass, eyes on the door, body still. Any movement would catch her eye, but she did not move. It was the wrong movement, the wrong person. A heavy breathe, almost a sigh. She waited, patiently. When would her man return? He left this morning, with a quick kiss and a promise to be home later on. So much time had passed, where was he? Time seemed endless without him.

Wait…what’s that sound? Could it be him – she heard his voice – YES – she turned her head to hear him better, and scrambled to get up…..

Welcome to General Jackson, Pogona Vitticeps, lizard extraordinaire, and this scene has been played out for almost four years. She is attuned to her best friend’s voice, my son Justin, who started us on our road to a place where lizards outnumber the humans.

Bearded Dragons are cold blooded (two chamber heart), but not cold hearted. General Jackson can attest to that! We are told their behaviour is one of toleration to humans – General and others have shown us this information is not quite correct. (In General’s case, she tends to tolerate her co-lizards and adore her human friends).

Basically, there are three main types of Bearded Dragons: Pogona Vitticeps (the most common of captive bred, also called inland or central), Pogona Barbata (also know as the common bearded) and Pogona henrylawsoni, (of which I am still trying to find out a definite reason for its name origin!). Yes, there are other types (dwarfs, reds, etc.), and yes most originated from Australia. These lizards are diurnal which just means they are awake during the day and sleep at night. They eat crickets, worms, and veggies (insectivores), and adults are mostly vegetarians (HA! Tell that to ours that refuse to give up their crunchy protein for a veggie plate – I get the same look from my household when I serve a healthy tofu and lentil dish). Suite101’s Herpetology 101 from Amphibians and Reptiles, as well as the Topic Reptilia have said it succinctly and informatively. Please check out these links for some excellent articles about all kinds of reptiles. And I won’t bore you again with the details.

We’ve been studying Beardies for four years now, and their interrelational dynamics are similar to a group that have been stuck together through no fault of their own. In adults we have four females and one male, and keep the sexes separate. We had to do this due to the aggression of the male, Angel, who was acquired as an adult after being taken to the pet store for re-adoption (owner going away to school). Three females were raised from babies (General, ZRT and Crystal) and one was an abused juvenile that we rescued (Sundance). Each was individually kept in separate tanks but not separate rooms, and eventually they were housed all together. (I have no living room, it’s the lizards’ hangout).

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic