Angel is Three years old!!!
Wow, what a difference I see in my girl after 2 years. Not only has she grown into a young adult, she is amazing me with her new found appreciation of affection.
She has grown like a week and is now about 14″ from snout to vent and about 8 pounds. She is definitely a young adult now. her intelligence is expanding and her personality is much more mellow.
Today she willingly came to me and snuggled up on my chest in the car, laying her head on my cheek. Tonight before bed she allowed me to wrap her in the electric blanket and snuggled and slept with me before I put her to bed. She had really come full circle and FINALLY is craving affection from me.
It’s not to say she still doesn’t have a mind of her own, no she is a wild natured, I want to do this now, type of iguana. Her mind is active and on alert and very, very curious.
The weather has been cooler and the sun is not shining on her cage, since it is on the north side of the house. This has caused me to not allow her outside. She has not taken it well and many days I return at lunch and she is back in bed. Even when I leave and come back early, I find her back in bed by 2pm. There has been a time change though, so 2 is really 3, but even still, I thought I had been getting her used to it.
But today, I moved the cage back and worked on making her tunnel 4 feet long. I added a board for support and let her outside. Thought it was only 72 and cloudy at times, I allowed her to bask in the real daylight and she was a changed girl. It was even hard to get her in to warm at 3. Moving the cage out will work, but it still too cold to leave the window open when I leave at 7am, so for 3 days a week she will have to wait until noon to have a change for outdoor fun.
We did a quick trip to Reno to see my family and she saw falling leaves for the first time. The weather was uncommonly warm so she could go out and play for a couple hours during the day. She was fascinated and amused by the sound and sites of falling leaves.
All the time I think of Babe and feel his presence. I know he spirit intertwines with hers. As I feel her cuddle and relax with me, As I sing his favorite songs and she melts into my arms like he did, I know his presence is with me.
Angel was the iguana meant for me, I wish I had come to realize that sooner, but I was stubborn and afraid of making a mistake. God had a plan and she was a part of it.
No matter what happens in my life, it is so nice to have an anchor like Angel. When I am sad, she seems to sense I need her and though I may need to wrap her tightly in a blanket to bring her near, she sees my tears and willingly tries to cheer me up by being submissive and well behaved.
I take her out a couple time a week to the beach or bay and sit and enjoy the boats as they come and go. She enjoys her outings, her break from the 3 days laying in the window in solitude.
For her birthday I redid her closet shelf where she sleeps. A small task ended in a half a day of trial and error, but finally I figured out a way to lower the shelf about 3 inches so she would have more head room. Not being good at engineering, it took me time to figure it out. My first idea didn’t sit well with her, she preferred the heating pad to lay on and the memory foam mat curled up the sides with the heated throw above her for radiant heat. I put the heating pad on for 2 hours, warm her up and leave the heated throw on all night to give her warmth from above. Once an iguana is warm, it doesn’t take much to maintain the warmth, so it works well.
So, that is the progress of 2 years. So much to be happy about in my life right now. I struggle with keeping positive and moving forward.
My iguana manuscript has been on hold until I completed my dad’s 90th birth day party, which was a big success.
With this entry into Angels journal, I hope to ignite my will to finish and polish content. I am leaning towards a series of chapters rather than a book. I think I am a short story writer, not a novelist, so maybe the only way I can start to get my content out there.
I am hoping Angels journey will help other reptile owners and the even non-reptile owners that there is so much more to these amazing creatures than most know.