Meet Bobo Geico (pronounced like the insurance company). According to Tanner, he is a North American Alligator Lizard. He has quite the life...a condo for lizards you might say.
When we first met Bobo he was about 2 inches long and very thin. Tanner caught him on a family camping trip in 2007. Well, he caught him, he got away, Tanner was very upset and he caught him again several hours later. He held, played with, sligtly squeezed and took care of this lizard for the duration of the camping trip as any 7 year old boy would do. A temporary home was set up for Bobo and he joined us around the campfire every evening. When the trip came to an end we all thought the "you need to let him go, back in to his own surroundings, you took good care of him while you were here" speech would prompt Tanner to let him go. Not a chance...he was taking him home.
Imagine our surprise when we visited a year later and Bobo Geico was still alive and thriving. At this time he was in a small aquarium. He had obvioulsy grown a little and seemed well adapted to his new surroundings. The next visit was in 2010...Bobo was huge and had moved into a lizard condo. Seriously, his aquarium is very nice...all a lizard could ask for.
The picture you see was taken this week after Bobo Geico has lived with Tanner for 4 years. He is about 6 inches long and very fat. He eats well. Tanner is very proud of his lizard and can tell you anything you want to know about this lizard and any other variety. He has "Googled" everything a person could want to know about lizards. Really, it is pretty neat watching the boy and the lizard grow up. Tanner will forever have memories of the family camping trip and acquiring his new pet. (Not too sure how mom felt about it at first, but she seems just fine now.)
The one thing I forgot to ask Tanner is, "how long do lizards live?" Tanner, could yo get back to me on that?
"Boys Will Be Boys!"
No comments:
Post a Comment