Back in the early 1990’s, I worked as a Youth Director at our local “Y”. \u00a0This was a very demanding job. \u00a0I was responsible for programming for youth ages Pre-school through High School. \u00a0I also had some programming to do with the local school districts and the At Risk community through the court system.<\/p>\n
I needed something to “Break the ice” so to speak. \u00a0Something that would appeal to all ages. \u00a0Something unique.<\/p>\n
Enter, Puppy.<\/p>\n
I purchased my Iguana through a pet store. \u00a0I had them order him. \u00a0I wanted to make sure he was healthy and not some poor lizard that had been handed down from pet store to pet store. \u00a0In other words, I was careful.<\/p>\n
Puppy was adorable!<\/p>\n
When I brought him to the “Y”, I had not named him yet. \u00a0I decided to let the youth in my programs submit names for him and then they could vote for their favorite name. \u00a0One of the little kids in the Pre-school program submitted the name, Puppy.<\/p>\n
The youth loved the name! \u00a0All ages and even adults loved the name. \u00a0So, my Iguana was named, Puppy.<\/p>\n
Puppy became a fixture at the”Y”. \u00a0No matter what age of youth that came through the doors, they all wanted to see Puppy. \u00a0Puppy began to spend his days riding on my shoulder, greeting people as they entered the “Y”. \u00a0He was a hit!<\/p>\n
Puppy became famous in the community. \u00a0He went on visits to the local schools. \u00a0Some of the school integrated his visits into new curriculum they were developing. \u00a0He was on the local Television station. \u00a0He was everywhere! \u00a0He was spoiled.<\/p>\n
Seeing as he was just newly hatched when I got him, we had a great time watching him grow. \u00a0He grew to be 5′ long. \u00a0He was big and he was a heavy load on my shoulders. \u00a0He started sitting on my head as we walked around the “Y”. \u00a0That felt better than walking around lopsided with a huge lizard on one shoulder.<\/p>\n
The youth loved to feed Puppy. \u00a0He loved to be hand fed. \u00a0They fed him lettuce, grapes, tofu was one of his favorite foods, too. \u00a0Of course, he had to have special vitamins and lighting to make sure he got the things he needed for bone development and all that kind of thing. \u00a0Puppy was king!<\/p>\n
He loved being petted. \u00a0He loved being scratched along the top of his head. \u00a0He would close his eyes and you could almost hear him saying, “Ahhhh, that feels great!” \u00a0He especially loved this when he was shedding.<\/p>\n
Eventually we moved from the state where I worked at the “Y” and we had to stay in some temporary housing while we waited to get into our new home. \u00a0The temporary housing would not allow us to have Puppy there. \u00a0I was very, very sad.<\/p>\n
I found a new home for Puppy. \u00a0A home with two young(ish) boys. \u00a0Before we moved, I took Puppy’s home, special lighting, vitamins, toys, everything, over to their house. \u00a0I tried to teach them about how special of an Iguana he was. \u00a0He was tame. \u00a0He was sweet. \u00a0He was cuddly (as far as Iguana’s go).<\/p>\n
When we left him there, I cried.<\/p>\n
To this day, I don’t know how Puppy did with his new family. \u00a0I don’t know if he is still alive. \u00a0Iguana’s live a long life if treated right. \u00a0I left him with his new family back in 1996. \u00a0That is a long time ago.<\/p>\n
Every time I see an Iguana, I think of him. \u00a0I often wonder how he did and how they treated him. \u00a0I hope he had a good lizard life. \u00a0He was a very special pet.<\/p>\n
*And yes, I know about how Iguana’s can carry Salmonella and was very careful about having the youth that touched Puppy wash their hands afterwards. \u00a0Me, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in the early 1990’s, I worked as a Youth Director at our local “Y”. \u00a0This was a very demanding job. \u00a0I was responsible for programming for youth ages Pre-school through High School. \u00a0I also had some programming to do with the local school districts and the At Risk community through the court system. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2522,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions\/2522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}