Alucard's Journey

I'll try not to make this introduction too upsetting.

After the sudden and tragic passing of my two year old, Simon, I had an empty enclosure and a beardie sized hole in my heart.

Simon was buried in my front yard, and a red maple tree was planted on her grave site as a memorial. Richter came to show his respects. As time passes, this whole area will be converted into a beautiful garden in her honor. Rest in peace, Simon. You were truly loved.

I'm on day two now and am still grieving horribly, but if I could turn her empty enclosure into a great home for another dragon and give them a good life, why not start now.

Alucard has been introduced to the house. She will never replace Simon and she knows she has big shoes to fill. She was also taken out to pay her respects to Simon's memorial site. She is a normal morph little girl beardie, just like Simon, and has a lot of spunk and a big appetite.

She's about two months old, 8.5", and 32g.
She will inevitably lose the very tip of her tail, but it looks like this is healing well and will not cause her any concern.

I look forward to the love and laughter she brings to me and appreciate her presence turning Simon's home into something positive again.

 

[Bogathedragon]

As a baby he looked a lot more leathery but his scales rose a little more as he aged.

This is the only real photo I have uploaded of Richter in his leash
It's Simon's leash, but here's Simon in it

I honestly don't use the harness with him often. He's either in his carrier, being carried by me, or loose and closely supervised.
Now with the tent I just plop him in there

If only it would stop raining daily!

I haven't put Alucard on a leash yet, but I think she would just gator roll the entire time and flop like a fish. She's a fighter

where did you get the tent? my bearded dragon hates his leash sometimes, and so i got him a little animal stroller and we go on walks, but he cant get full sun through that.

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

https://www.amazon.com/ABO-Gear-Happy-Habitat-Indoor/dp/B002KWHE1E

I was actually about to go set it up but I'm waiting for it to warm up a bit for them

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Kozmo,
That is a perfect little beardie nook! And yes, Alucard is stepping up her game

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

That perfect beardie smile...
She didn't smile until right before I took the picture, like she knew

 

[smackey2]

Oh my! O.O
Look how cute and adorable! She has a perfect beardie smile.

 

[SHBailey]

Nice growth spurt. And thanks for the link about the tent. Does it have a bottom? Hard to tell from the photos.

Beardies always seem to like to find themselves a little patch of sunlight to hang out in, Kosmo being the perfect example.

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Yea, the tent bottom is the same as the sides.
Alucard is gonna be a heavy girl

 

[NBGwen]

She is so adorable

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Her smiling little face helped me finish the work day.
I've been sick all morning, on the verge of leaving work early, but I pulled through.

I kept this page up with her cute little smiley face on and it helped a lot

 

[SHBailey]

So she's completely contained when you put her in the tent and can't squeeze out under the bottom -- sounds like I may have to consider getting one of those for Puff, even though the summer is almost over. It usually turns cool and rainy in August around here. It's already cool and rainy today, but they're predicting nice weather for the weekend, for whatever that's worth, since you can't really predict the weather in Anchorage.

Lots of people seem to keep pictures of their "kids" (human, furry, scaly, or whatever) on their computer screens at work to remind them why they're doing this, or at least to remind them what they have to look forward to when they get home. I hope you're feeling better, but if not, I hope you've got some sick leave saved up so you can stay home and maybe get some quiet cuddle time with your critters.

 

[KozmoRox]

Omgoodness!! I may have to get on of those enclosures for Kozmo. Yesterday when we went out for some sun, she was acting a little strange. She's mid-shed and a little grumpy! ? I put her down to soak up some sun and take care of her business and she wanted to run and be defiant. She ate a dried leaf? And half an earthworm. And lunged for a leaf on an unknown herbal plant(I'm glad it wasn't poisonous)... all the while puffing and body crawling. I've never seen her like that. I gave her a nice warm bath to help with the shed, and she gave me a present ?. Serious sass from my little scaley friend!

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

What a little stinker.
It sounds like she may have been just moody and poopy :lol:

I do feel much better today, at least so far. I had to travel out of town yesterday, too, but I felt much better by then.

This is my favorite picture of Alucard figuring out the tent.

She had more fun scaling it than anything.
The opened size is about the width/length of a queen sized bed, pops open like an umbrella, and easily folds down again, too. Super convenient

 

[SHBailey]

Some beardies do tend to go a little nuts when they go outside. (or a lot )

In my opinion, for whatever it's worth, pooping in the bath is a thing to be encouraged. It makes it really easy to clean up after them -- all you have to do is dump it down the drain. Our beardie was "housebroken" that way when we first got him, but not so much lately. I'm afraid he's learned that he can't depend on his human slaves to give him a bath when he has to go.

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Ok I'm quite confused tonight.
She was on track for .5" for growth, but this week she gained NO length. This week was jam packed full of dubia, too. I'm curious to see if her rate from here on out is a lot slower.
She did gain 30g within this week, regardless of being on coccidia meds

Her tail shed came off today. I swear she's part snake...

Speaking of tail, I had a scare that she started reading as male, but the flashlight test put a rest to that. Tail lift is showing two bumps form, but flashlight is just one. Hmm.

Her very first black beard.. this is why I did the tail lift. No idea what caused the black bearding, but it didn't last long

 

[NBGwen]

Hmm...and now you have me thinking I should do the flashlight test...Charlie has 2 bumps on tail lift but before that we assumed he was she. He has no femoral pores.

Alucard is lookingbas adorable as ever!!!