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In 1994 I knew this girl named Dana. She was rad and worked with my boyfriend as the manager of Musicland in the mall. Closest that goth/punk/hipster hybrids could get to a cool job in the town of Okemos. After we had been friends for a while she asked me a favor. She knew I loved animals. She had a baby iguana. Her boyfriends mom had given Lydia the lizard as a gift and her cat was terrorizing it. Would I take it? I lived in the dorms at the time, but critters in aquariums were ok, so I said yes. We had many good years together. I hand fed her strawberries and bananas. She would climb up into my hair and swish her tail around. I still have a scar on my wrist from when we were playing one day. She stayed with my brother when we went to California for the summer and when I came back we were so dorky playing, me letting her crawl on me and eating veggies from my fingers.
She roadtripped with me, John and Cluecat when we moved to Arizona and we set up an entire walk in closet as her home with lots of edible plants, heat rocks, a little pool, the whole nine yards. Later when we moved to West Oakland she weathered the trip like a true trooper and loved the new walk in closet home with 8ft tall climbing branches and levels of tree like hot spots to lounge on. When John and I split, he had the closet (and the apartment) so he got custody. I helped pay for a big open cage once the heat in the apt got fixed and she had a queens quarters. When he moved to Wisconsin he wrote to tell me she almost died on the trip but didn't. I was so mad and worried all at once. I didn't get to agree to my iguana leaving town. He left and told me later. He had custody for years, but her and Matthilder the cat always still felt like mine too. Today I got the email. After fourteen years, she has passed away. I lost a piece of my family. It's hard to explain missing / mourning a critter that's been out of your care for so long. But I loved her so much. Knowing she's gone, means I know without a doubt I will never see her again. Never know how big or sweet or how her greens changed over the years. I kind of always thought I would see her again at some point. But now it's finite. And done. No more Lydia. No more wondering how she is. No more thinking about watching her carve up a banana again.
Fuck.
Just. I loved her a lot.
She roadtripped with me, John and Cluecat when we moved to Arizona and we set up an entire walk in closet as her home with lots of edible plants, heat rocks, a little pool, the whole nine yards. Later when we moved to West Oakland she weathered the trip like a true trooper and loved the new walk in closet home with 8ft tall climbing branches and levels of tree like hot spots to lounge on. When John and I split, he had the closet (and the apartment) so he got custody. I helped pay for a big open cage once the heat in the apt got fixed and she had a queens quarters. When he moved to Wisconsin he wrote to tell me she almost died on the trip but didn't. I was so mad and worried all at once. I didn't get to agree to my iguana leaving town. He left and told me later. He had custody for years, but her and Matthilder the cat always still felt like mine too. Today I got the email. After fourteen years, she has passed away. I lost a piece of my family. It's hard to explain missing / mourning a critter that's been out of your care for so long. But I loved her so much. Knowing she's gone, means I know without a doubt I will never see her again. Never know how big or sweet or how her greens changed over the years. I kind of always thought I would see her again at some point. But now it's finite. And done. No more Lydia. No more wondering how she is. No more thinking about watching her carve up a banana again.
Fuck.
Just. I loved her a lot.
