"Roachies"
I really don't like
cockroaches but they are so disgusting that I can't resist them. Therefore, I
am going to allocate a section of my home page to these vile creatures. Go
figure?!
Believe it or not,
there are roaches that are over three inches long. They even hiss, as if size
is not enough of a deterrent to keep enemies away! They are native to
Madagascar, but you can buy them at pet stores if you want to pay money to get
roaches into your home. This is not as strange as it seems. My sister and her
friend raised these horrid creatures at one time, I
guess you could say they were in the roach ranching business. On second
thought, it is strange to raise roaches. My sister and her friend were life
science majors in college which may explain this odd behavior. People
educated in business schools do not raise bugs!
Iguanas
Unlike roaches, I like
iguanas a great deal. I am raising a green iguana named Scully. She has grown
from 3" SVL (snout to vent length) and 11" TL (total length) to
15" SVL and 54" TL since I bought her in Lubbock in 1997. I am
guessing that she is about full grown. I really have no idea what would possess
me to want a lizard that is over four feet long, but I do. Actually, raising
reptiles is very challenging. I like figuring out calcium to phosphorus ratios,
worrying about adequate sunlight and temperature, etc. Keeping reptiles alive
and healthy is a demanding and rewarding hobby. When I lived in the Rio Grande
Valley, Scully spent several hours a day outside in the Ficus
tree on our patio soaking up UV rays in order to keep her bones strong and
healthy. Now that I've moved she has to stay inside under a UVB bulb so that
she doesn't get metabolic bone disease.
FYI: Don't buy an
iguana unless you want to spend a great deal of money on housing. They will
triple in size in the first year so the little pen you get when you buy that
3" lizard won't last long. Scully's diet consists of collard greens,
mustard greens, alfalfa, squash, green beans, and a banana once in a while.
Cats
We have two indoor pet cats, Kramer and Louis
and two outdoor cats, Beastie and Fiske (they were
strays we took in).
Squirrels
My daughter Melanie and I raised a baby squirrel
that fell out of an oak tree in our back yard on September 1, 2001. She was a
few weeks old when we found her. She bit me when I released her back into
the wild - beast!