Wednesday, November 24, 2010

R.I.P. Kayla
A post I had hoped to make 10 years from now.

Kayla developed an itchy spot which she *loved* to have scratched this spring. It got a little dark in color, and a little larger. She had on-again off-again eating habits, but showed no signs of distress. It wasn't until about 2 weeks ago that I discovered a berry-sized bump in her sinus cavity directly behind said spot. It had never been sensitive before now.

Her symptoms fooled me. She was shedding and brumating and appeared to have a sinus infection/cold. Even her tail faked me out. She would let me rub it and give her a warm bath, after she figured out I was trying to help her. It wasn't until the morning of November 17th...she became very limp, and liquid drained from her left nostril and mouth. Off to the vet, a stay overnight. I called "after nine" like they said, and she had died within the past hour.

We buried her in the backyard underneath where her fountain sits during the other 3 seasons. I'm still not completely over this (obviously) since it was so sudden.

She had gone on a 2.5 week trip w/Dad & me to Clayton New York and then to the Washington DC area. I had plans to get documentation from my pdoc saying that she was officially/legally my therapy pet.

She was my baby, my friend, my partner, and my first dragon. No need for "Rainbow Bridge" postings- I know I'll see her again in Heaven. And that she's no longer in pain. I also now know that the Bearded Dragon is the critter I need to have petwise, and that Beardies need to be listed and accepted as service/therapy animals on par with with seeing-eye dogs/horses and PTSD aids for returning vets.

Love you forever Kayla! All that "Dragon Whispering" has already paid off in multiple dividends...

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posted @ 8:38 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Kayla Sheds & Tears
The tears were mine because I was so happy! We're in the middle of Kayla's summer shedding and I was helping her with head & beard. We were so totally communicating with each other the whole time! I needed to get into a tough spot, she'd move so I could get to it. I needed to even things up and give her some rest, she'd literally move to her opposite side. I needed her to not quit on me and to be patient, she hung in there.

I'm so proud of her! :.-)

It didn't go as beautifully with the arms/legs & tail. But at least we had one beautiful long moment.

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posted @ 9:55 AM  |   0 comments  |  

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

I wondered why Kayla was so quiet...
True to form, Kayla'd been climbing the walls for days, hotter than hell on days I could take her outside to potentially dig, and wetter than stink on days when I felt good enough to take her outside to take the whole 5 hours to dig her hole.

Then I cleaned the cage yesterday.

Today she was quiet. Too quiet.

I look in on her and...7 eggs! A personal best for her with us!



I'm such a proud Mommy: Good Girl Kayla!

PS: that's 50 eggs total

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posted @ 4:10 PM  |   2 comments  |  

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Dragon on the Edge
Kayla is a dragon of extremes. First she says a grand total of 36 eggs, then lately she's taken to hunting anything with a stinger in our backyard. Yummy. Dad says she even caught one in mid-air during a jump down. Woo! Go Kayla!

But I'm drawing the line at extreme sports. At least until the extreme shedding is over with.

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posted @ 9:49 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Solstice!
New hair, new glasses, new ear piercings, but no new dragons. But after nearly losing Kayla's life to her *25* eggs when her weight plumetted due to all her nutrition going into that clutch, I think she's getting that operation before next year. Whew! Congratualtions Kayla! Job well done!

Now, how do I spoil my dragon after so much labor? Can O Grasshoppers, and a *very* well-received introduction to the garden fountain. She loooooooooooooves that thing!

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posted @ 7:37 PM  |     |  

Thursday, May 07, 2009

2 Words:
Kayla's Pregnant!

We don't know if the eggs are viable yet. Meanwhile, we must research sperm retention just to be sure.

Yep, you heard me.

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posted @ 9:22 PM  |     |  

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Kayla's Garden
Yesterday I took her out for a walk in the backyard flower beds again. The marigolds are twice as big as they were last time Kayla was out there and this time she LOVED it! She wove in and out in between the marigolds many times (didn't dig) and watched my Mom very intently as she watered the flowerbed. Jumped back when she came too close. Then Mom watered the water fountain. Then something inside of Kayla finally clicked: she bee-lined it to the fountain, climbed up its slippery fake rocks as best she could, dunked her nose in and *started drinking*!!!

I've NEVER seen that girl drink before! Bearded Dragons are supposed to have the hardest time recognizing water. I've tried to get her to put the sound with the liquid before, but something about watching Mom use the "shower" setting on the hose did it for her. She must've thought it was rain, since she's always looking out at the window.

So now, we're making notes as to what kind of outdoor funhouse we can put together for her. Digging spot, water spot, heat spot, tunnel spot...

Mommy's so proud of her baby! 2 biggies in one week!

Now if only it will get her unconstipated.

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posted @ 2:33 PM  |     |  

Kayla Digs!
2 Days ago I walked her in the backyard, after the lawnmowerman came, and she took immediately to a patch of anthill that had been tossed about. To her it smelled interesting, and then she started to DIG! Finally! I'd put some clay in her cage back in like September but she wouldn't dig back then, but boy howdy she was diggin up that anthill debris!

Too bad there was nothing under it except for the concrete around the pool.
After 'while, took her back in, but she went for the "outside window" in the den, so I took her to the front yard where I knew a sandy spot was. All I did was dig with my finger in front of her twice and dig she did! And dig and dig and dig and dig... until the local mosquitoes came out! Dug a pretty good-sized hole for about 90 minutes. That explains the scratching she'd been doing around her cage. First I thought she was bored, then I thought she wanted to cuddle, then I thought she wanted to deliberately wake me up, but NO- the gal wants to DIG.

What the heck for I dunno. Last time she was around a male was just before I bought her back in August, so she can't have eggs...

Well, this just proves once again that the dragon and I deserve each other. Up in DC I was notorious for diggin' to China. Found a large brick-sized piece of local quartz once, but no China. I wonder what Kayla's 'buried treasure' is.

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posted @ 2:24 PM  |     |  

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Dragon Along...
During Kayla's yard inspection, she actually crawled onto my hand when she was ready to go to a new flowerbed! Usually she'll just sit there so I have to grab her.

But despite the exercise I've gotten doing yardwork and carrying bricks, I've gained weight.
My fault- been yogaless.
Kayla's gained weight too.
My fault- I fed her too many crix (crickets) post-brumation.
Granted most of that weight was constipation.
Too many exoskeletons.

Constipated dragons can die from sepsis, so we took her to the vet that's an hour away. Longest ride we've had Kayla on. The vet practice is the same as Merlin's, my tabby cat from well over 10 years ago. Good news- she pooped the next day. You know you're a Mommy when you cheer when your baby finally poops after well over a week.

Vet also confirmed my earlier suspicion that she's in her 5th year goin-on 6! She's still climbing the cage, but it looks more like she's trying to wake me up during my morning Ativan Nap. Probably just wanted out yesterday when I wasn't here, or saw another one of those millions of caterpillars that come out this time of year all over the Southeast*.

She broke her diet - she's eaten 2.

Lately she's only been eating 2 crickets and that's it. I know the recent poo issue scared her into it, but I'm flummoxed as to why she's stopped eating greens tho, usually she loves romaine. I cleaned the cage but that didn't help (neither the appetite nor the climbing). Hmm...will leftover honey Greek turkey help?

*I really need to look up what species they are.

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posted @ 2:16 PM  |     |  

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Friskies
No, not the ol' cat food- Kayla's got the special Spring Fever and is constantly climbing the walls of her cage and rearranging her furniture (food bowl untouched). When it stops raining, I think I'll let her dig the holes for these seeds I got for the barrel garden. Meanwhile, my nose tells me that Dad's pruned the rosemary bush again. And they're on trays. In the den. Again. Good news is, hopefully I won't be having headaches for as long as they're about. Apparently you can kill a headache by sticking your nose in the rosemary jar. I wonder what happens if you snort it by accident. This coming on the heels of our state government increasing the cigarette tax up to "still the lowest cigarette tax in the nation".

<.sigerette tree thinks the cigarette tax should be the highest>

Kayla could care less about that of course, she's got the same problem I have: lonely hormones. Back to the music playlists, then.

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posted @ 11:55 PM  |   1 comments  |