I don't mention him often because I'm not always looking at him (don't ask me why, he is quite fascinating when he's hunting, jumping, and even just plain basking) constantly and I haven't posted any new photos (if any at all) because it's hard to get a good photo when he's curled up in the corner of his tank passed out cold.
I'm talking about Jack, our Chinese Water Dragon. I'll include a photo at the end of the post, it's an old one, but it's a great one. Anyway, we feed him crickets. He loves hunting crickets and I hate feeding him meal worms even though he loves those, too. I have to dig out the meal worms from sawdust and then hope they really are alive (they like to play dead). Then I have to throw them right to Jack so that when they wiggle he'll see it and snatch them up. I prefer the crickets because as I shake the bag into the tank he'll snatch one right out of the air and then run over and grab another one as soon as he's done with the first.
Anyway, not the last time, but the time before we had bought a dozen crickets for him and the Little Lady wanted to throw them into his tank. So we let her. At least two, I'm thinking two anyway, got free. Meaning as she was shaking the bag somehow they made it to the log which is close to the top of the tank or the fountain and jumped out. Remember now, Jack's terrarium is in our bedroom at this time and we are constantly having to sleep to the sound of crickets chirping. It's a pain in the ass, but we can handle it. I'm not twitching yet anyway and I haven't attacked the crickets yet.
So the last three days, I'll get back to the point now, I've been watching this damn cricket wander around the living room. I think it's the same cricket anyway, it's huge and I can't miss it. It crawls along the living room floor and last night it was on the couch, I blew on it to keep it away from me (most insects hate being blown on) and he went behind the couch. Now he's back on the floor in the part of the living room I saw him in yesterday. So this cricket is quite the adventurer. He made it out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, which he still explores as well, but he hasn't made it across the living room and out the door to the front room. I think he knows that Dusty is in there and Dusty will attack him if he notices.
We have had a cricket make it outside before, but that was just from the front room when we were buying 5 or more dozen at a time (we were trying to get them to make little crickets so we wouldn't have to buy crickets all the time, but that didn't go as planned). The cricket that made it outside stayed real close by the door, at least in people terms, he was only a few steps away, off the cement and into a patch of grass.
The cricket that made it outside found cricket friends by singing to them and they came to rescue him from the patch of grass. They took him in and made him part of their family. Ok, so I can only imagine that they would, but we know he wasn't there anymore after two days or so. We were actually quite proud that he made it to a new home, even though he had been told (I tell the crickets what they are when we buy them) that it was food for Jack.
I'm waiting patiently for this cricket that's wandering between the bedroom and living room to try to incite the other crickets still in the tank to revolt and become free. I don't think I would be able to handle almost 2 dozen crickets jumping and crawling around. I wish Dusty would come in and eat this one or pounce on it, or whatever the heck he does to them. It just unnerves me that Jack's food is wandering free.
Anyway, here's a photo of Jack from a few months ago:
