Ernie was not just any old ordinary reptile that someone kept locked in a cage, only to say hello to it when you passed by. Ernie was like my “child” for almost 11 years. I would wake up everyday and have to take care of him because he did not live in a cage like most reptiles. I had him potty trained and everything. He would spend all day in the sun on my balcony. Boy did he love the sunshine. He knew every spot in the house were there was sun. The balcony in the morning and into the afternoon, then he would migrate upstairs were the sun shined through
my bedroom window till it went down.
Now, so many people just don’t understand why I feel such a loss over “just a lizard”, They say they have no personality, unlike a dog or cat. Ernie was the most affectionate lizard I ever meet. I remember when I would watch T.V. late at night and how he loved to sit on the arm of the couch with me or lay in my lap. He always had to be near me in some way.
Often he would stretch out his arm and put it on my shoulder just to have some sort of contact. He loved to lay on my dirty clothes or often I would find him under my bedspread. I think he liked the scent of me left around the house. He recognized my voice when I called out his name from another room (other people were in the room with him and noticed this on several occasions) He was far
from being “just a lizard”.
Upon my visit to the vet in his last couple of days, I learned that he was a she! Maybe this explains why she was so affectionate. The vet said she was definitely a “dominate female” and understood why I thought she was a he. I guess she had a lot of testosterone coursing through her. But in the end it didn’t matter. Ernie would not wake up from that fateful surgery to remove a safety pin that she had ingested. It wasn’t the pin that would end her life but a massive tumor that looked like it had originally started in her ovaries. It was in her best interest not to wake from this surgery, a decision that was the hardest I ever had to make.
Ernie, you will be greatly missed by all.
I feel as if a piece of me died the other day.
| Ernie |
| 27, Oct 2005 |
| Trevor |