So.. I realized something this week. If you ask me about my gecko, I will tell you everything I can think of about her and about geckos in general. I should come with some sort of warning label, like ask me about my gecko and you may be forced to listen to my answer for an hour. I am not sure how this happened totally, but I am ok with who I am.
We got Harry in July, but I started thinking about adding a new family member (NOT a baby lol) during the longest months of lockdown. I needed a project, and a new little creature I guess. I was thinking rabbit for a long while, but landed on gecko. Wyatt really likes the Daniel Tiger episode where he finds an anole, and I have always thought that lizards were sort of cute. In July, we adopted Harry (a leopard gecko) and we all adore her. We started with the Leopard Gecko Kit from Reptizoo, and as the months have gone on and she has grown, we upgraded her to a bigger, bioactive tank with live plants and lots more room.
I am not alone in my love for small creatures though, this year – two of my besties are also in the same boat, with their little toad friends. Chrissy has a toad named Cupcake, and Kelly has two toads, Theodora (Teddy) and Betty. We actually sit around now and discuss our bioactives, clean up crews, substrate, isopods, and have tossed around the idea of breeding crickets. All over glasses of wine. They are just as obsessed with their littles, and Kelly and I actually send each other photos of Harry and Teddy and Betty. Who are we now?
This is Cupcake’s abode. She likes to hang out in her little house.
And this is where Teddy and Betty reside. You can see them sitting in their water bowls waiting for breakfast…
Kelly also added two more amphibians to her menagerie as well, two axolotls named Pearl and Faye . They give her more grief than the toads though, and technically belong to her tween..
All in all, they make us happy. Harry is like a cat, and I tell people that leopard geckos are apparently the reptile version of felines. She loves to be pet under her chin, she can be a little moody, likes to bask in warm spots, and is a cute hunter, shaking her tail when she is about to strike. She also honestly was put out with me when I got home after staying in the hospital with Wyatt, much like my cats, giving me the cold shoulder for a day.
These little critters, which we thought would be a nice distraction, turned out to be so much fun and sources of happiness. We just love our Harry! (or as my mom says, we are just wild about Harry!) And if you ask me about her, you might get more than you bargained for!
How about you? Did any of you develop any surprising new hobbies this year?
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 
I am glad you are enjoying these creatures. Great photos, too.
I have a problem liking geckos because of my years living in the foothill, and the tendency of lizards to appear out of nowhere, seemingly. LOL. They were actually slipping through cracks in the attic rooms.
Enjoy them, though. Every little creature deserves attention.
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Oops, “foothills.”
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Lol! I am sure I wouldn’t like them just creeping around everywhere. They are creepers, it cracks me up to see her peek her little nose out of somewhere – in her tank. If there were wild ones just randomly showing up it would freak me out. Harry is so tame now, she just climbs into my hand and curls up – sometimes she climbs up to my shoulder and tries to get in my hair and I have to have Billy come and grab her because I don’t want her to get tangled in it (a real possibility) or jump from there! Also, the cats… lol.
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We have a leopard gecko, too! We just upgraded him to a much larger tank from the standard size they recommend at the pet store. I hadn’t heard of a bioactive tank and your post sent me down a rabbit hole on YouTube. That sounds amazing! I’m going to look into doing this because it’d be great to have live plants and stuff in there.
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Haha it happens!! Welcome to the club! 🙂 It took us a bit to put it all together and we still haven’t bought our clean up crew but that is next on the list. I also want to add more plants. It’s fun to do!
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