At 5:15 a.m.this morning, we experienced the death of a dream. Skitters puffed his last breath, sloughed off a little more skin, and closed his eyes. There will be no more skittering by this little guy. Around bedtime (of course), Ben noticed Skitters seemed still. His breathing was slow and the little guy wouldn't, you know, skitter.
An uncle I have claims the internet is a world wide waste of time. Here is where he and I part ways. How parents survived without vats of knowledge at their fingertips is beyond me. With impending doom, we culled the masses of information regarding anole lizards. Who knew many lizards are color blind and may not see their food or be able to find their water dishes? Another factoid expressed concern over the unknown origins of your lizard. If by chance it is "wild caught", it may not adapt well to captivity. Lizard forums (yes, there are many!) provided all sorts of nuanced caretaking ideas for your particular lizard. None of this research was done prior to the purchase, of course. I just spent $4.99 on certain heartbreak because I was ignorant.
My suggestion to you is to not mess with the heart of a boy and stay away from lizards. Heartfelt tears at 9:00 p.m. as your kid lies sentinel next to the lizard's home are hard to take. Even harder is watching a grown man attempt emergency lizard resucitation at 10:30 p.m. when it is clear the critter is going down. Just so you know, Big Man's batting average for humans is way better than anything he's tried reviving from Petco. Finally, the 5:00 a.m. cry of "He died! Skitters died!" is not a great way to begin the first Friday of summer break.
There will be favorite movies playing today, treats offered if his appetite returns, copious snuggle time, and a promise for Skitters II after summer travels are complete.
Yes, we are dumb. But love...it makes us do crazy things.
Ah, that is sad. Will there be a post mortem?
ReplyDeleteThe WWW uncle.