So I've for awhile wanted to do something more blog format so I could by today's standards especially kinda ramble on about the things that interest me or as the case for needing this would be to show off my photography and talk about the photos or things happening at the time.
Recently Flickr announced they would be taking away the basically unlimited free option so I had to download all my images(I some dating back to 2003, I first signed up in 2004) and I'm stuck on where I upload now even though it was getting inconvenient especially with most people on Facebook and Instagram. Which is all fine, but with multiple photos something was always going to be completely wrong as far as the crop so I didn't really get to show off things the way I wanted or even sometimes all my photos with the limit of 10.
So getting to my first posting today...
Last weekend I got my first pet in the last 2 years since giving up my dog who was not adjusting well since I had my son. We tried to make it work for over a year. He needed more time, money and just quiet to relax in than we could have ever provided. Which was a hard choice because we rescued him around 9 weeks old on the verge of death(flea infested, covered in sores) and he definitely had some great years with us where he had all/most his needs met. But all at once between his aging health, moving expense, family sickness and struggling to feed ourselves it was just time to give him a better home. His new owner runs pet photography business so I still often get to see photos of him in his "retirement" home. Apparently he likes her husband best, that's a chihuahua for you.
When I grew up I had almost every type of pet, which a lot of the time the care of them and the family dogs fell on me. Which I loved caring for animals, least the fun parts. I definitely took on more than I was able/willing to handle sometimes. We gave away a fair share, birds, hamsters and my ferret(when I was getting ready to move away from home). I kind of accepted it as normal, and at least for the most part my animals were happy and healthy, but sometimes they didn't have a clean cage because I found it too hard to take on. Basically continued that trend even up to a few years ago, I had a 40 gallon tank for a large number of hermit crabs then I took on a huge rat cage and a lot of rats(I ended up keeping one until she passed away from old age and cancer in a smaller cage and giving away the others and the large cage). The rats weren't too bad care wise, but my husband was slightly allergic to their urine so that ruled out having another.
Like most people I like cats and dogs, but after having my son and my physical and sometimes mental health issues and frankly not having proper funds, I knew that really wasn't an option at the moment at least.
I researched basically more so on the pet I figured I wanted vs the care I could provide so often that I had some pretty crazy ideas as far as how to make some alternative pets work in our space. In the end especially after all we went though with our dog I realized I needed just something simple, cheap and I could do all on my own and maybe to some degree would be fine if I had busy days or we wanted to go away on a trip somewhere.
For a few years I was convinced I was going to get reptile of some sort, of course because of the animal person I am I really wanted something unique. Bearded Dragons had some appeal, but I felt like they were kind of "common" and came across a Uromastyx at a pet store and basically dove into research. It seemed pretty appealing in my mind, especially the all plant/seed diet. I actually talked to an old friend who I knew was into reptiles and even then he suggested that Leopard Geckos and similar lizards were good pets. In my mind I could recall looking at small lizards piled in a small hide almost every time I visited a pet store as a kid, but never really had much interest in them. I'd had a couple lizards before as well and they were not really handle-able or anything. I remember chasing my green anole down a few times because he could escape easily and the lizard I had before him I don't even know the type, but he died because I stupidly wanted another lizard and my new lizard had mites(long story, but basically ended in the death of my favorite lizard and the one the pet store gave me to replace him. Still remember for weeks having to do a mite bath and pulling mites from under the scales of my remaining lizard, poor thing.)
In the last few months I finally started to get serious about getting a pet. With some dogs and cats interrupting my goals because I couldn't help, but look at photos on rescues and the humane society. At one point when I first thought I was going to get a lizard I started having just fun looking up names I thought would fit a lizard, not much on the fine details of what I'd need.
Well, a few months later I now am the proud momma to a Leopard Gecko. My first set up isn't prefect, but it's pretty good, probably about the only detail I look forward to changing is getting some natural stone tile for the entire floor and I made sure I had everything absolutely I needed before I brought my lizard home, which was a mistake I made with a lot of pets in the past, which just makes for stress.
We've decided to name "her" Popipgah (Pop Peh Gah) in attempt to make her name something my son can say. Which is how he says "Peekaboo" so basically I got my unique pet as far as naming goes. As she and my son get older we may change the name or call her "Popi/Poppy" or if she is actually male we might use a different name.
Here are the few photos I've gotten of her with my DSLR.
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