Our Class Pet!

I'm so excited!  I received a grant from The Petcare Trust to teach my students responsibility through animal care in the classroom!  Well, it took us forever to decide what the best pet for us would be, us being the boyfriend and I, since it will live with us when not at school.  At first we chose a Leopard Gecko because I read wonderful things about them and had a lot of recommendations, plus they are just darn cute!  BUT then we went to a pet store and asked about them and were told that a Bearded Dragon would be a better choice.  And then we held each, and oh my did that little Leo squirm up a storm!  The Beardie was so calm and cool and adorable that we couldn't resist, our minds were made up!

Yesterday we headed to the store and picked out our aquarium, then headed over to the case of little guys, and one immediately stood out.  He was right up front trying to climb the glass front of the cage!  We were hooked!

Our little guy!

Then we saw that he seemed to have a broken tail.  We asked about it and were told that it wouldn't effect him, but that they weren't sure they could sell him to us since he was injured.  The associate went to check for us and man oh man was that stressful!  Not being sure we could have the little guy we fell in love with was rough!  We couldn't even pick a backup!

So after a LONG five minutes or so she came back and told us that we could adopt him!  And that because he was injured and they couldn't give us their normal 14 day guarantee that he would be FREE!



So our little guy came home with us yesterday and is TOTALLY at home!  And I think the cats are slowly accepting him.  Though Orca licks her lips every time she looks up there!

Orca can't keep her eyes off of him!

I'm going to print some photos of him (we actually aren't sure if it's a boy or girl, but we've been calling it him, so I'll stick with that until we know for sure) to take to school.  He won't actually get to come to the classroom until after January/February once he's bigger and once the weather is a bit more suitable for him to travel.

Close-up of our cutie!

His terrarium is HUGE and pretty much takes up half of our living room, but it doesn't look too bad.  Plus the shelves underneath give us storage to keep all of his things and the crickets we have to feed to him.

He came and hung out with me on the couch while I watched The Sing Off from the DVR.  I wonder if he'll like Jersey Shore too?

Now we just have to pick a name!  We originally planned on Norbert, but he just really isn't a Norbert.  We have also considered Dingo (because they are from Australia), and Benjamin Sisko (because the boy and I are big nerds).  For now I've just been calling him Little Dude.

Anyone have any great name suggestions?