My reptile journey

If I had gone to a psychic in my 20's and they had told me that in my early 30's I would not only be married but living  in a big  house in suburbia with a basement full of reptiles I would have asked for  my money back.  

But that's exactly what happened to me.  

How did that happen you might ask?  

I met my ex husband when he was a graduate student at Yale and I was the secretary.  We  started dating  and after a year moved in together.  We want a pet but  our apartment was  small and the landlord would not allow dogs or cats.  

My ex had had reptiles as pets a child so went to the  pet store and came home  with our first reptile, a box turtle  named spud.  He had a nice aquarium with a heat lamp and all was good.

What happened then is that we would go to the pet store to get supplies or  food (worms) and would see another turtle and of course felt bad for it.  Then people find out you have them and they have one they don't want any more and before you know it.....

Fast forward another year and my ex got a job at Lehigh University in PA.  So we pack up the aquariums and our pets and off we go.  

We lived in a small apartment initially so the  crew did not get any bigger.  Then after the Lehigh Stint and some  teaching in Reading we moved to a big house in NJ.  That is when the population exploded.   

If you would come into my basement back then the first thing you would notice is that it was very warm.  Reptiles are cold blooded so you need to provide them heat sources so they stay warm.  

We had some beautiful tortoises:  Robbie and Orson who were south american red footed  tortoises.  Robbie  would stand on her toes when you scratched the back of her shell and do a little dance.  Stand was an African Leopard Tortoise, yellow and black who started out the  size of an egg and grew to the  size of a small dog.  We hatched a  box turtle  from an egg that was really cool.

We also had iguanas, 3 at one point.  The original one was Sydney.  He would sit on the back patio with me in the summer and  absorb the heat.  He was so happy he never moved or tried to get away.  They all got very large.  

Then there was the snake.  Not sure he  had a name, not my favorite, he was a  large boa constrictor.  Why a snake?  My ex starting doing  talks with kids and you need a something for the  wow factor.  Kids have no fear, they put him around their neck and marveled that he was not slimy.  Everyone  thinks  snakes are slimy.  

The good thing about Mr. Boa was that his food did not need to be alive in order for him to eat it.  I would never ask you to go to my freezer for ice because  it had a bag of  frozen rats in it.  All you had to do was defrost one, take you tongs, open the cage and quickly throw it in.  He could really move if he was hungry.  

Ten years into our marriage we got a divorce and sold the house.  We each  took some of the collection and sold the rest.

I still have Sherman who is a box turtle and probably about 50 years old now.  I found out that Sherman is actually female so I guess  it's  really Shermina.  

Today the rest of my pets are cats!