SteamRolled

I'm not one of those girls who screams every time someone tries to scare me, or I get surprised, or something loud sounds off from nearby.
No...usually I gift small vocalizations of surprise when...something happens and I'm not expecting it.
At work. (wow...alot of these posts recently have been about work...weird.)
Anywho. The reptiles are good at getting me to...well I don't scream it's more like a short "Ah!" that's probably really soft. Or those kind of 'shudder screams' that people do when they encounter something disgusting.
They're good.
My first time doing reptile bedding changes...I saw this red leaf in the cage, buried in the dirt. I thought that was weird to have this random red leaf when all the other plants were green so I brushed at it, getting ready to pick it up.
And it moved.
yep, Exclamation of surprise.
Good job Red Tomato Frog. Good job.

There have been other instances....like crickets being unexpectedly squishy...but the most recent was yesterday.

It started out pretty normally. Reptile cages. Time consuming. Messy. But fun. Yet I got to the row of the bearded dragons and leopard geckos and noticed....an odd smell. Like something was rotting...a smell of decay.
Wrinkling my nose I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I kept thinking...the Reptiles don't stink like this...why is it smelly. It can't be smelly because of the reptiles, they don't stink, and the cages are cleaned out weekly, they haven't stunk like this before.

It was the Leopard Gecko cage that was next to be cleaned out.
A simple matter of removing the rock hut, the moss, water bowl, branch, decoration thingy. The Gecko....and of course the carpet. For the Leopard Gecko is a desert reptile, so the 'bedding' is carpet that we wash and dry and switch out for another carpet square.

In any case, there was only one gecko in the cage. So I scooped him out.
And went to grab the carpet.
I pulled back one side.
And gave that small shriek.
Why?
Because a brightly colored reptile skin, stared back at me.
Like a neon light.
Not what I expected.
And then I realized.
That wasn't a reptile skin. When they shed, the skins aren't colored they're just white.
No.
It was a second leopard gecko...squished as flat as a pancake.
*shudders*
I literally had to peel the poor thing from the bottom of the cage, he was sooo squished.

I totally would have discovered this earlier, as I usually check how many reptiles are in each cage, and when I see lumps in the carpet, I check to make sure that there are no reptiles that crawled underneath.
But this....there were no lumps in the carpet. It was as flat as could be, like nothing was underneath. Which is why I didn't make the discovery until the day we changed out the bedding.

:( And once again...my curiosity finds no answers. How did this happen? When did it happen? Why did it happen? HOW DID THIS GECKO GET SQUISHED!!!!!

*shakes head* This has been a really off week for the animals.... :(
and I can't help thinking back to the beginning of the week. When the animal department was opened by people not part the department....did something happen then?
But it still doesn't make sense as to how the gecko got squished on that side. The rock hut usually is further away. The water dish on the other side of the cage. The branch and decoration...not that heavy and again not on that side of the cage.....
Did it just...crawl underneath and die? Was it not squished at all, but that's what happens to the geckos? They flatten and become twice their size?
I have no idea. :( It just doesn't make sense to me. :(
It's another lesson. Be careful around the reptiles! Don't place anything carelessly inside the cages, because you don't know where the reptiles will be. And I suppose...don't assume that just because there are no bumps...that there are no reptiles underneath the carpet....lol well unless the reptiles are playing at being pancakes again...I don't think I have to worry about the second one. :)

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I was driving in my car, nearby a busy intersection that lead onto a ramp/bridge that lead to a highway. I pulled out of some driveway and headed towards that intersection with construction on the corner for two lanes...as they were redoing that part of the road. So I was down to the one through lane and a turning lane. There was also an...In and Out place there as well. There was a red light before me. and two or three cars in front as well. I put my foot on the brake...and realized that my breaks weren't working well. I wasn't slowing down quick enough. But luckily the light turned green and the cars moved forward so I knew I wasn't going to hit them, even though I did plan to try something else just in case they weren't moving quick enough....

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D