Nathaniel, Cierra, Castiel, Freya, Grrl; RIP GABRIEL

We never expected to get another dragon, but our neighbours next door wanted to give away Cleo, as he was called. We'd babysat him before, he's such a sweetheart. We nicknamed him Velcro because when he snuggles he never wants to go back to his viv, he hangs on as if he's made out of velcro.

So here he is. Today was his first day with us. He ate 13 supers and ate some squash, not bad for the first day he was here. He's only in a 30 gallon tank, which will be ok for now. He's 18" long but weighs only 200g. We figure he's probably 2 yrs old. Our neighbours rescued him last fall, they found him and a female (which they named Puff) on Craig's list. They were in a 30 gallon dirty tank, with sand and a huge log that took up 1/2 the space in the tank. Leo was at the bottom, he was sooooo skinny. He's gained weight, but never got the attention he deserved. I took some pics today, but will take more tomorrow. I think he remembers our place as didn't get stressed as I expected. No stress marks at all. When we let him run around the living room, he noticed our girls and immediate black beard, so his hormones are working!

He had a bath this morning, had a big poop, no smell, so not worried about parasites.

So here are a few pics, he's a yellow & dark gray, light gray colour.

Under the communal power sun in the living room:

Discovering there are girls in those tanks up above, he has a great black beard for such a skinny boy:

On the couch, he's got a pretty diamond pattern on his back:

Hope you enjoy
Deb and my six dragons :shock: :shock: :shock: :love5:

 

[Goonie]

He's discovered the joy of running to under Gabriel's tank, doing the bob bit, then running back up the ramp, basking, then back again; he just have done that 50 times this afternoon It was hilarious to watch him :lol:

Nathaniel is so bad! He was purposely teasing Gabriel and getting him all worked up.

 

[diamc]

:laughing6: That must have been a riot watching Nathaniel doing that. Bet he tired himself out but since he's so young, maybe not. :mrgreen: Could Gabriel see him?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Yes, he runs under Gabriel's tank but just enough outwards so Gabriel can see him just fine. When Gabriel is out, he does the same thing to Nathaniel. When I introduced them to each other, Nathaniel licked Gabriel's nose & Gabriel didn't even have a black beard :lol: Yet when they're out, they love to tease each other. Considering I've had Nathaniel for 3 weeks, he's now one of the crew for sure :mrgreen: Pleases me to no end to see him like this

 

[sweetiepie9]

OMG, you'll never guess who called me today & visited Eric called & said "Mom, we're downstairs, can you come down?" So you can imagine how little time it took me to run down the front stairs. They would have come in but Safara was sound asleep in their Explorer (nice!) so we spent 30 min together. I got to hold Leo, he's a very good pouter and he's a very good destroyer, too. Seems Eric gets on the computer and Leo joins him and next thing Eric is distracted with keeping Leo out of everything, and there goes the computer time. He's locked Tara out twice, had to get her cousin in to fix her computer. He's 30 lbs of raw energy. Got pics, too, was so excited forgot to ask Tara to take a pic of Eric, Leo and me, but maybe next time. Tara even asked me to friend her on Facebook again. She even hugged me goodbye when they left to visit my folks.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked, never expected this in a million years. My sis emailed me from Florida this am saying how worried she was about Eric & family, so I called her dad, have always had their#, and he said they were on their way to Tara's grandfather, then on their way to see me, then to my folks. It was great to talk to Keith, haven't talked to him for a couple of years, so hopefully I'll see him & his wife Heather, Tara's mom, down the road.

This is the BEST Christmas present I could have ever had :love5:

So here are pictures:

Eric and Leo, then 2 pics of Leo (actually got him to smile), then 2 pics of Safara sleeping.










Now to Christmas afternoon & evening at Dave and Annika's:

Without Ryder; Emily, Carly and Cole and Choco. The body pillow was Cole's gift from Santa & he loves it.


With Ryder :lol: Notice Choco disappeared :mrgreen:


Choco decided there was too much noise & got into his bed behind the dining room table


Dave and Annika after a long day, Choco getting his belly rubbed, of course :mrgreen:


Now to my crew:

Nathaniel is getting the gist of being on the ramp, checking out everything along the way: The sofa:


The top of the ramp:


And back in his tank with his new pillow (it was Lonzo's)


Snuggling with Didi:


Leo, sort of awake


Gabriel "where is that little guy, I just want to eat him" :lol:


Puff, posing, still has that black beard going, think Nathaniel was out at the time:




Choco showing off his Santa hat that Annika bought him today (I dropped over to bring them the gifts from my sister & b-i-l that were left at my mom's). He wasn't too impressed :lol:


I checked with my Mom after Eric and Tara had gone home and she was so glad to see them. I'm hoping this continues, as they'll be able to visit when Mom and Dad move, too. Their new condo is really huge, 1700 sq feet, so lots of room for company.

I'm just floating, guess I'll be that way for awhile. After all this time, to be reunited this way & out of the blue...I'm so happy, but not expecting anything else. If I see them more often, great!

 

[Esther19]

Oh my gosh. I am speechless. I know when I am finished being stunned I will be so happy for you! Beautiful kids, beautiful dragons, beautiful family. Wow. Still stunned. It's about time they decided to be decent to you. Facebook friend? Hug? You'd better go buy a lottery ticket. It's your lucky day! May I say that I still would like to give them some choice words? However, I am ecstatic for you!!!

 

[BlueDragon09]

Totally awesome Deb!

Haha poor doggie! Glad Cole likes his body pillow.

Btw, getting Alucard to the vet, he's ill now, calling to find another vet, his eye socket is swollen I suspect eye infection.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I know Esther, but I really couldn't be anything but happy. As for the future, well we'll see. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos, isn't Leo beautiful? And Safara. They went to my parents right afterwards and Safara was waking up when they got there. So Mom got pics of Eric holding Safara and Tara holding Leo. I'll be bugging Dad to get them to me when I visit them next. They're so busy unloading stuff in the house, that's all they're concentrating on right now.

Hi Blue, so sorry to hear about Alucard. And you have to find another vet? Isn't that body pillow cute? Cole's room is blue and a light green, so it matches up very well. He loves it, being so long and skinny :mrgreen: Hope you had a good Christmas, even though you're worried about Alucard. I'll have to check your thread, but I have wash to get & get to bed, so tomorrow morning. I didn't get to sleep until 4a and was up at 9a and didn't stop all day, so I will definitely check tomorrow.

Well my resident mouse is back. I was going to get a couple of traps today (the kind where the mouse goes into it and the door snaps shut) but with Eric visiting and having to get food for the week, the doing 2 washes, got sidetracked. That's the first thing I'll be doing on New Year's Day as the stores are open. I have other traps but they're not working and I seem to have only 1 mouse. He's a cute little bugger, but I can't have his poop all over my house. So far, he's just checking out the living room and parts of the kitchen. I bought glass to put my nuts that I buy for my breakfast every day, as that's what he's looking for. I also got rid of the dog food & cereals I was using for roach chow, I have a friend who will sell me hers instead. Alot better for me.

So on another note, my roaches LOVE peppers. I put a huge red one in each tank and it's almost gone. So I bought more for them, good for the dragons, too.

That's all for me, going to get my wash soon & bed time. I'm so tired.

 

[Drache613]

Hello Deb,

Great pictures!
That is extremely surprising Eric came to see you. Wow, that is a nice Christmas gift & you got to see your grandchild, too.
I hope your gang is all doing well! Your new boy is adjusting well now?
You have a resident mouse too? LOL

Happy Holidays.

Tracie

 

[BlueDragon09]

Yes, another, gotta call around because the one I have couldn't see the infection. I bet if she saw him now she wouldnt know what to do and I trusted her! >=\. But it started swelling today so it just started and gonna nip it in the bud as you guys say.

Good luck with your unwanted resident.
I personally kept one as a pet once but it was
injured at the time. It got to know me so I got
attatched and couldnt give her up when she was
healed. Lived a full 3 years.

I should specify before you read my thread Im very
concerned for his head, worried about his eye.

 

[Goonie]

Oh my gosh. I am speechless. I know when I am finished being stunned I will be so happy for you! Beautiful kids, beautiful dragons, beautiful family. Wow. Still stunned. It's about time they decided to be decent to you. Facebook friend? Hug? You'd better go buy a lottery ticket. It's your lucky day! May I say that I still would like to give them some choice words? However, I am ecstatic for you!!!

My sentiments exactly!

Thank goodness you were home. What if you had already gone out to run errands? :silent:

 

[sweetiepie9]

Gina, My sis and I had gotten worried at not hearing from them over the holidays, so I called her father around 11a and he told me they had just left to see her grandfather, then he was going to stop her and then to my folks. So I decided to be patient and wait at home, I sure didn't want to miss them. Luckily they came early enough that I could get my shopping done afterwards. So it all worked out. Hopefully I'll see them again, soon. I told Tara I'm off next week vacation so am available any time I don't have an appointment. We'll see...I'm not expecting anything from them, that way, if I don't hear from them, I won't be disappointed.

 

[diamc]

Oh Deb, I literally cried when I read your post about them surprising you just thinking about how you must have felt when Eric called and said "Mom, we're downstairs, can you come down?" WOW, what a great surprise!!!!!!!!!!! So happy to hear that they did that and you were able to see & hold Leo and finally got to put your eyes on Safara. They are both SO adorable. :love5: The pictures came out great. You sure have some nice pics of your good time at Christmas. Choco is so cute.

Always love seeing pics of your crew, they all look very healthy & happy, full of it too. :lol: Didi looks very content with you holding him. Puffs head tilt is so sweet. Gabriel didn't look very happy that he wasn't on HIS ramp lol.

Thanks for sharing the great day you had. You must have had happy dreams. :love10:

 

[sweetiepie9]

I did and I forgot to tell you that I was talking to Barbara on Sunday night. She said to say hi to all of you. She's still working 25-30 hours a week but hoping that will be full-time soon. All her dragons are doing really well, especially Z&W. Hard to imagine that they'll be 7 years old in June! And Checkers is already 8 yrs old. Seems they're all awake after snoozing the fall away. Her daughter had another girl, who's 7 mo old now, forgot her name. Her older granddaughter is about 2 yrs old and they all still live with her. Richard has moved into his girlfriend's parents home and is very happy. Did well in school and graduated with high marks. Daniel and Rodger (two oldest boys) are still living there, too, so she sees Aiden every weekend. Can't believe he's 7 years old already! Freddy also still lives with her. She has 3 rooms attached to the farmhouse, so that's where her daughter & 2 oldest sons live. Even so, they're all home to eat, but all contributing as much as they can.

So all in all, it was great to talk to her. She doesn't always get her phone, it only rings twice before going to voice mail. She doesn't have an international plan so I have to call her, because I do have a Canada/USA plan (only costs me $10/mo) so I do try to call her at least once a month. She was also thrilled to hear that I'd seen Eric & family!

I think Didi needs to sleep but it's hard to turn his lights off when he wakes up full of energy in the am. By the time I leave for work he's starting to fade but still I don't want to turn off his lights. I took him out to walk, his walking is all wonky, probably from being in his tank since mid-Sept in quarantine. So he's going to be getting more baths in a bit of water, so I get give him some water therapy, making him jump, plus getting out daily so he can at least walk across the living room more often. He doesn't have any fungus left that he can give to anyone, so I'm not worried about contamination. Even so, the top of the ramp is covered with a different towel when he's out, just in case. Don't know what else to do for him. I would let him run across my bed, but my bedroom is very cool for me, I have to have a cool space because my living room is so warm. So I think the baths & getting out in the am will help.

Just saw the darned little mouse, still not sure where he's coming from, hoping he'll realize really soon that there is nothing edible within his reach anymore. It's all in glass containers or above the fridge where he can't get to. Fingers crossed he just goes away. If I still see him on Friday, I'll be getting traps on the weekend. That means goodbye mouse. He is a cute little thing but don't like the poop clean up daily.

 

[Tonja]

I am so happy for you that you got to see Leo and Safara along with your son! What a nice surprise for you
Love all your pictures also. Nathaniel sounds like a riot and happy he is fitting in so well.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hi Tonja, Nathaniel is a little bug but I'm so pleased with how he's doing. He's up to 273g from 218 just 3 1/2 wks ago & he's grown at least 1/2". His poop isn't smelling as bad as it was & he's eating what I feed him. He has this week and next week to go on the Panacur, then he'll be done. I'm going to change his vet appt to 3 weeks after the panacur treatments are done as I'll want to get another fecal done, plus a check up. He was already vetted at the rescue society where I got him, so I know he's healthy. I have to get my car fixed, there is a smell of gas outside of the car that is getting worse all the time, so that has to come first. Especially as I need the car to get my babies to the vet, never mind visit my family when I can.