Hey guys! It’s me again, the crazy one who dreams about lizards and episodes of the office. I’m here to tell you all about my newest endeavor. See, I decided that there is something missing in my life from when I was a child. I cleaned out my attic and basement the other day and threw out a lot of things from my childhood. While I was going through the stuff, I found binders and binders full of drawings of the one thing in my life that I loved more than anything else: lizards.

When I was in 5th grade, my grandfather surprised me by taking me to the pet store and buying me some lizards. The salamanders that I used to catch in my friend allison’s back yard died too often, and my grandfather wanted me to have something that i’d be able to feed and take care of.

We walked over to the anole cage and the woman told me to pick out two lizards. I picked two out and named them Leif and Woody. I was ecstatic! I would let them sit on my hands and I would play video games while they sat on my lap. They were so easy to train that it was crazy!

After a while I decided that Woody wasn’t a boy, he was a girl and I named him Woodene (at this point I didn’t know how to tell the boys apart from the girls. Sadly, Woodene was, in fact, a boy) Woodene went EVERYWHERE with me. She played Super Mario Bros. and Goonies with me. She would crawl around when I was playing ninja turtles and she would jump on the action figures. She was my buddy.

I had other lizards that lived in the tank with her. Skippy (he had a blue stripe down his back), Toad (who ended up being a girl, but i didn’t know at the time. I thought he was just small), Frogface (also a girl. The girls have a very pointed, small face, and the boys have a really long face. I called her frogface cause of her pointed face), and Leif.

Woodene died when I was on vacation a little more than a year after I got her. It was weird, too, cause I said to her before I left “I have a weird feeling that I’m not going to see you when I get back” …. I don’t know why I said it. She wasn’t even sick. I got back and my grandfather said to me “one of your lizards died…” … and I automatically knew which one.

After Woodene, I had a few other lizards that I kept, and I loved them all, but I don’t think I could have possibly loved any as much as my little Haley.

Haley was a sad case. I walked into the pet store and she was alone in the tank, and she had a broken tail. Also, for some reason, she was blue. Anoles are usually this yellow-green color. She was definitely bright blue with a big blue stripe running down her back. I bought her immediately and as soon as I got home, I took her out of the bag and put her on my hand. To train an anole to sit on your hand, you usually have to let them sit on your hand, and very lightly hold their tail between two of your fingers, and eventually they won’t try to run because they will grow used to you. Haley was tame from the moment I took her out of the bag. After that, we were inseparable. I took that little girl everywhere with me, and everyone loved her, including my mom. We called her “H”. She ended up dying when I was in 7th grade (on halloween!) … but I still talk about her today, as witnessed by this journal entry.

There have been many lizards over the years, the last being Zukin, who was won for me at the bloomsburg fair. Right after I got Zukin, my mom ended up in the nursing home, and Zukin died a few months later. After that I just really stopped buying lizards. I guess I thought that I just had too many problems in my life to have to deal with running around and buying crickets for them and taking care of them.

A few weeks ago, I had a dream about lizards again. Usually in my dreams I’m squishing them no matter how hard I try to save them. In this dream, I found an old lizard that I had forgotten about in the back of my cellar when i was cleaning stuff out and I saved him. Ever since I had that dream, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how much I miss them. I drove to pet smart probably 2 times a week to look at the anoles.

Last Sunday I woke up early and went into the back of the cellar and dug out my tank and driftwood. I set up the tank and Larry and I drove to the pet store. The girl let me take the two lizards I wanted, because I specifically wanted a male and female, and she didn’t know how to tell them apart and was afraid to touch them. I got a boy and a girl and I named them Jim and Pam (i’m obsessed with the office, as you all know!) … Here are some pictures of them!

this is jim. He’s really adorable and he jumped right on my hand when I was at the pet store trying to pick lizards out of the tank. I’m trying to train him first because pam is still scared to death of me.

Pam is adorable. You can tell she’s the female because her head is smaller and her snout is shorter. She seems to get along with him just fine. I haven’t seen them fighting yet, so that’s good. They can be ridiculous when they fight. The males have this big red flap on their chins and they look silly ^_^

Pam was sleeping on Jim’s butt and I thought it was funny, so I included it!

I’d be a jerk if I didn’t post a picture of everyone’s favorite 11 year old lizard, Lee. I didn’t mention him above because he isn’t an anole and this whole thing was really about them, but Lee is my buddy. I’ve had him since 1995, which means that this summer, he’s going to be 12! I didn’t even know lizards could live that long! Many of you who watch the animations will also recognize him as Santa Claus. Don’t tell him how great his performance was though. He has a TERRIBLE ego.