A dog in the house!

There is now a dog in the Hammett household! We are now the proud owners of a 3 year old male beagle, born in May of 2005. He is very well behaved, house trained and pretty much awesome. He goes by the name “Gambit” which is a name for a chess move, we are going to try to change it to “Bandit” because of how close the two names are. He answers to Bandit just fine though. He came from a family in our church who could no longer keep him for various reasons. This was a big step for my mother who generally doesn’t like dogs, but she seems to like Bandit just fine.

Lizard Photo Shoot

Today I got the lizards out for some pictures… Well at least Gerard was willing to come out, Julian on the other hand had many objections, ran away, and sat on his turtle… So anyway I figured I would make a quick post with some pictures of the lizards. The first three are of Gerard the Leopard Gecko, and the last three are of Julian the Bearded Dragon…

The Promised Post

Earlier this week I promised that I would post about my lizards so here goes….

I currently abide with two lizards. One is a Bearded Dragon named Julian, and the Second is a Leopard Gecko named Gerard. Julian is a lively, young lizard, where as Gerard tends to be more calm and easy going. I had kept both lizards in differing sizes of Aquari up till two weeks ago. Julian was starting to get rather large and Gerard had long since outgrown his small 10 gallon aquarium. So I took a trip down to our basement and brought up a monster of a terrarium I had built oh so long ago for my 2 day lizard friend, the Iguana. It was quite a bare terrarium since it had only had a resident for 1 night, so I set to work upgrading it. The first part was to get some scenery. So I threw all advice to the wind and went for a walk in the woods. (You really aren’t supposed to take anything from outside and put it in a lizards cage, everyone says that there are all kinds of diseases on outside objects which will kill your lizards… It’s been two weeks and counting…) I found a couple suitable sticks. I then purchased a couple harmless living plants. I was quite happy with myself and how the cage looked, but something was missing, the flooring. I was using newspaper, which is a good substrate, but it leaves alot to be desired, it just looks cheap. So I took a trip to good old Home Depot and found some suitable carpet. I figured rather than spend $50 on reptile carpet from petco, I would make my own. Don’t worry Tobi, it is the grassy like astro-turf so their claws won’t snag or anything like that… I then moved to Gerard’s terrarium. He is quite a large gecko now, so I upgraded him to the 29 gallon tank that Julian was in, added a little astro-turf, a stick, and a new water bowl. Both lizards were quite scared in their new environments, but I was quite happy with how they looked. To finish it all off I added a stone turtle directily under a basking light to Julian’s terrarium. I also had to add a line of clear scotch tape around the top to keep the crickets from climbing out the top…

 

Gerard’s Terrarium

Julian’s Terrarium… Can you find him?

General Update

Yup, life is pretty busy around here right now, and things aren’t looking up yet. Out of this whole next week, Thursday is the most open day I have. Since Christmas life has been a blur of nonstop work, church, chores, school, and hunting. Sleep has been little, and days have been long. Don’t get me wrong, although life has been busy, it hasn’t been without blessings. Yesterday my brother and his family returned from three years of missions work in South Africa. I has been fun getting to talk with them in person once again. This morning, the last day of extended doe season in the Lehigh Valley, I got a deer. A small deer, but a deer none the less. My car has been running well, my family has stayed pretty much healthy, despite all the sicknesses floating around, my lizards Gerard and Julian are both doing well and growing daily, so all in all I have alot to be thankful for. Life has certainly been good, busy, but good.

The Name Has Been Chosen!

First off, I would like to say thankyou to all of you who voted for a particular name. Nebuchadnezzar was the overwhelming majority pick… BUT it was not chosen sorry everyone. Thanks to Tobi’s suggestion, I came up with a name that was not placed on the list. Tobi suggested that I name the lizard Julius… now while I like this name, it didn’t seem right for this particular lizard (plus it makes me think of fruit juice), but even though I didn’t choose Tobi’s suggestion, it gave me an idea. His suggestion is very similar to a name I have always liked, for some odd reason, and it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the suggestion. So without further ramblings to draw this out any further, go here to see the name…

Name Update

Even though I changed lizards in the middle of this name quest… I still need a name for my Bearded Dragon. So, I think I have narrowed it down to three possible choices…

1. Hidalgo- it is of Spanish origin and means “noble one”

2. Bilbo- umm… originated from a book, no clue what it means

3. Nebuchadnezzar- originated in Babylon, also no clue what it means

So what do you think, do you like one of these choices, hate them all? Think you have a better suggestion? Oh, and Tobi, I liked your choice of “Reilly”, love the name but I got a friend here in Emmaus who has a dog named Reilly… so that one is kinda out. Good choice though… Oh and people, please comment…

That was quick!

Well, the iguana didn’t last so long with me… my impulsive decision came back to haunt me. With more research, came more regret for having been so impulsive. I am now of the state of mind that taking care of an iguana can be related to taking care of a small child. To keep such an iguana would require boatloads (ok maybe not) of greens, veggies, and fruit, as well as an insanley large cage. So, I went with the better choice (thanks to Tobi) and bought a Bearded Dragon from a local breeder. The one I got is a rather inquisitive little fellow. He watches me the most of the time I am in my room, pressing his nose against the glass. When he isn’t watching me, he is chasing crickets, trying to eat the fake plants, or basking happily on his log. He like music, and loves it when people hold him, he tries to find the warmest spot he can, and is content to perch there for long periods of time. I am still undecided on a name, so keep the ideas coming…

The Iguana

Today I decided that I would be impulsive, So I went to the local pet store (aka Petco) to find something on which to spend gobs of money. After several minutes of browsing through aisles of white laboratory rats, $500 birds, and odd looking crabs, I finally decided to go with a lizard of some sort, shape, and color. I took me another several minutes of browsing terraniums, and trying to find one that I liked. Finally I settled on one very special lizard. I bought an Iguana. Supposedly they can reach up to 6 feet in length, but that is supposed to take a couple years to happen… hopefully I am currently without a name for him, and am open to taking suggestions… This ought to be sad, with the very small number of people that read my blog.

My Gecko

Well folks, I figured it was about time I introduced my gecko to you. He is a 6 month old Leopard Gecko. His diet consits of crickets and water. He is a rather sleepy gecko, and does not do much. Yesterday I finally got a picture of him that I liked so here he is.