We're new to this site, having only found it about a week ago. We've had Spike for almost six years now. We got her just before Christmas of '01 when she was only 8 weeks old. We bought her from a pet store that seemed very knowledgeable about lizards, and she was in great health when we got her.
I've been browsing the forums for the past week, and I have to say, this seems to be a very friendly informative site. We’ve learned a bunch of new information that has really helped understand Spike and her weird behavior.
First off, the name Spike came from my son, who was 8 years old when we got her. Believe it or not, the name didn’t come from her appearance. He named her for the lead male character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show. He loved that show back then.
When we got her, we thought she was a male. We had problems identifying her gender. As she was growing up, she displayed all of the male traits (hand waving, head bobbing, beard puffing as if she was trying to show off). We knew all juveniles do this, but she kept doing it until she turned 3 yrs old. Suddenly she just stopped. Then the frantic digging started. We didn’t know what was going on, because we thought we had a male, but two weeks later, she laid her first clutch of eggs. So Spike is definitely a female.
We have tons of photos, videos, and stories about Spike ( both times we took her into the pet store while we were shopping, we came out with funny stories ). We’ll be sharing all of these over the next few weeks.
Here’s a photo of our big baby. She’s also in our signature and our avatar:
Thank you for being such a welcoming and comfortable place to learn and share about our babies.
Welcome! I hate to quibble, but I don't think Spike was the lead man on Buffy... if anybody was (and I don't think there really was a male lead personally) it was Xander. He was the only one in every episode. Still, Spike was an awesome character and it's great to meet another Joss Whedon fan. Do you like Angel and Firefly too?
You're actually right about Spike not being the lead, but from my son's perspective, he was the best. He was always laughing at what the character said, and how he acted. We have a weird acting beardie, so it fits.
It's really hard to believe that we've had her for almost six years now. It seems like only yesterday that she was sitting in her tank arm waving at the dining room light...
As for your other question, Angel definately yes, Firefly no, but loved the movie Serenity.