In The Beginning...

...it was very, very cold! This is the type of weather you wake up to in New York City, not Florida! It was cold all right, and my bed was toasty warm, but I couldn't stay. Dispite the coldness, I had to drag the garbage out front for pick-up! And so, in the 40 degree tempertures, I got dressed and shivered my way out the front door. That's when I saw it and I had to do a double take! On the other side of the plastic garbage can...on the dried out, dead grass of the front lawn...was an unmoving, bluish-green, 3 foot iguana baby! Poor thing, must have died from the cold, it was so small.
I wanted to give it a good resting place and my female iguana, Zilla, was buried out in the backyard, so why not bury the poor little thing next to her? I picked up the tiny limp body and brought it into the house. I laid it on my bed for the moment and went to drag the garbage can down to the street.
Comming back into my bedroom, surprise! The baby iguana was gone! Lol! Looking around, I saw him scooting up my curtain to the top rod, where he threatened me with a tail swat.

Now, it has been 5 months since I last had a pet iguana, not having the time to replace Pugsley (see my blog, "An Iguana's Life") since he got out an open window and disappeared on me. I was still in mourning for my best of friend. Well, it looked like I had just replaced him!

I named him Mango, because I love the fruit so much and climbed up to drag him down from the curtains. Mango is definately a wild born iguana, probably hatched from a clutch of eggs from the Miami River across the street. He whipped and bit as I caught him up and began to cuddle him. He surely did not like me, it was plain to see.

I tucked Mango in my bra and began to pull out all of Pugsley's old things...his stuffed red lizard that was his bed, his iguana lights, his bowls and his soaking container and his parrot cage for when he stayed out in the backyard alone. Mango stayed cuddled in my warm bra throughout and that was the first positive reinforcement we had together. Well, we all say that Happiness is A Warm Iguana!

Mango calmed down pretty fast...he stopped biting almost at once but he does still threaten me with his tail until he sees what I plan to do when I approach him. We are learning about each other now and he does come in to sleep in an aquarium at night, where it is warm and safe.

He may never fully tame down, but he does realize that I don't want to eat him.

This is Mango's outdoor cage. It has everything an iguana could ask for, including a fur rug to sleep on. He looks happy, doesn't he?...for a wild born iguana.