GOODBYE TO VIC!

30 days ago, Zach brought a new pet in to our home. He was a green anole (mini chameleon) that he picked out. He had wanted one for a long time and had done tons of research. We purchased the tank and all the materials needed and set it up and then I took him up to Petsmart to pick him out. He knew that he wanted to name him "Vic" ...with the emphasis on ViC (with the strong "c" sound at the end :) ). Vic quickly became a member of our family and we would all walk by to see what he was up to or spray water in to his cage to make sure he had lots of humidity. Zach cleaned out his cage, made sure he had plenty of food and basking options and truly loved him.

He was a lucky chameleon, but on Sunday, Zach noticed that he was not looking very well and yesterday morning, he was on the leaf in the morning, but Zach checked on him shortly after and he was dying. Zach knew it and he was heartbroken (as was I). By the time he left for school, Vic had died, but was bright green and lying under the plant. When they are bright green, it means they are happy and content and that is what I reminded Zach of. He and Todd buried him in the backyard under the tree where all of Nick's firebellied toads have been buried. (Nick still has "Lucky" and we hope he is around for a while longer...but that's another "pet story"). Both Nick and Chris felt very bad about this for Zach. It's funny how a little tiny lizard becomes part of your family. Last night, Zach wrote about him in his journal. As he went to bed and we were talking about it, I told him that in 30 years, we would probably all be sitting around the Thanksgiving dinner table and remembering "Vic" and what happened. That brought a smile to his face. So people can say that pets are just pets, but when you love them, they become more than that to those who cared.

(Sidenote: Today, as we walked to school, we saw a black/white salamander on the sidewalk. At first I thought...maybe we should let it live in Zach's tank and he could have a new lizard for a while. Well, Zach was just going to move it into the grass and we found out it was no longer alive. THEN...we continued our on our walk and we saw a couple baby toads (no longer alive also) BUT to redeem our walk to school, Zach did save 3 baby toads and moved them to safer ground. Hope he remembered to wash his hands as soon as he got there. )