As with all obsessions & addictions, there comes a price. And to what price will we go as herpetoculturists, to what level will we sacrifice in order to gain the most sought after specimen? Would we give up on love, and throw a relationship into the garbage pile? The term hermit comes to mind now, and a vision of an Alec Guiness wanna-be pops into my head, robed, bearded, and covered with gecko feces.
My gecko addiction started a few years ago. I was keeping tarantulas and had been raising them from spiderlings. My girlfriend was actually the one that introduced me to the rhacodactylus species. This has to be the most ironic part of my whole story. It started off so innocently, I took her to the pet store, only planning on buying some crickets for my spiders. Some how she got her eyes on a ciliatus, one of the employees must have been showing it to another customer. It was a very pale tailless adult, and she fell in love. Because I was already involved in exotic pets on some level, my girlfriend decided that she wanted one of these little guys to add to our small family. I have to admit that I wasn't all that excited, but I started researching the basics, learning about their care and up-keep. A few weeks later I was at the Petaluma reptile show, purchasing a juvi crested gecko directly from Mr. Richard Spekner at Pet'acular (Looking back on it now, I was defiantly lucky to happen upon him. At that point I had no idea about the gecko community, or even what to look for in a breeder). Anyway I took the little gecko home having every intention to give it to my girlfriend as a gift. However, somewhere in between Petaluma and home something happened to me.
Jump ahead two years (and 15 geckos), and here we are, with me having completely taken over not only the first ciliatus that was suppose to be my girlfriends, but adding 14 more into the mix. They say that the first step in recovery is admitting that you are an addict, well here you go...."I AM AN ADDICT"...and I love it. Strike that...I love them. My girlfriend on the other hand is not an addict. She doesn't love cleaning poop out of screen cages, and changing water dishes. Don't get me wrong, she’s not cold or uncaring, and I think that if it was one or two, or even five, she might not have such a problem. But when you’re talking about double digits...she starts to get a bit annoyed. Some days the wrath is definatly worse than others, and some days she can even joke about it. But every once in a while she just looses it. Just one too many dirty critter keeper in the sink outside. The claws come out, and these are some sharp claws.
Now don't tell me that I need to find a new woman. A girl that has the same exact passions that I have. That isn't an option. I'm in too deep, and I love her (I know this is getting way out of hand, and I appologize).
I was just considering the possibility of a kingsnake forum that was totally dedicated to this subject. A forum where people could share stories, ideas, and experiences. A place where people could possibly save a marriage, or help to save someone from serious hardship.
I’m sure that many herpers will find that they can share similar experiences on this subject. The one important factor that stands out in my mind as I write all of this down is that I have had a deep interest in animals since I was a young boy. I can remember always being drawn to them, excited by them, and I don't know if anyone can, or has the right to suppress that. I'm not saying that my girlfriend is a fascist trying to hold me back, she just gets tired of the responsibility. My responsibility, which unfortunately she has to burden because we share each other’s lives.
I don't envision this as being something completely serious; some say that laughing is the only way to conquer sadness. I just want to see if anyone else has an interest in a forum of this sort. A specific place set up, if for any reason, because people looking for care information don't want to read posts like this.
