Maybe we shouldn't have named him Bowser...

Bowser always gets defeated in the end. Named after Mario's arch-nemesis, maybe we should have thought twice before naming Hayden's pet bearded dragon "Bowser."

Just a few months ago, Hayden started asking for a puppy. I have been very reluctant to get him a puppy, because I have never had any luck house training dogs. I was just not to the point that I was ready to give my house and my clean floors to a dog, so we began searching for other options. (I should mention, we have Romeo, a 14 year old Redbone Coon Hound that sits on our front porch, but he is too big and too old to play. And he is strictly an outdoor dog!) Anyways, Curtis found a bearded dragon, and completely against my will, got it for Hayden. I was not a huge fan of the reptile, because he was creepy and a little high maintenence. Must be fed a daily salad of greens, carrots and mealworms (dusted with calcium powder) and also 10 crickets a day. But we got into a routine of feeding him and he was surprisingly a very social animal! And the best part, he doesn't stink! I'm very OCD about animal smells, and I have to admit, his cage was completely odorless!

A week ago, Bowser developed an intestinal prolapse. Actually a fairly common condition in some reptiles and birds, but we assumed he would pass very quickly. We told Hayden that he had gotten very sick and was going to have to live on a special lizard farm where he could be taken care of. In actuality, we put him in a box in the basement and waited for him to pass. Saturday and Sunday passed, and Bowser was still kickin. We had talked of finished him off with hedge clippers, or maybe putting him in the freezer... but we could never bring ourselves to actually do it. Monday rolls around... Bowser is more alert and actually looking better? Very confused at this point, we had to start making decisions so he didn't suffer any longer. To complicate matters more, Hayden found Bowser in the basement and thought it was a miracle on 34th street. The little thing had quite a will to live, so we started talking about actually putting him through surgery to fix the prolapse. Tuesday morning, Hayden and I took him to the vet to have corrective surgery. It cost less than a car payment, but more than a week's worth of groceries. He made it through surgery and was able to come home that night. Here are some pics from his "homecoming" ... Hayden was very excited:

Here is the last picture of Hayden holding Bowser... as you can see, he was white as a ghost. He never regained his color and his condition continued to deteriorate after he was home. He would not eat or move. We had to force feed him his liquid antibiotic drops every 6 hours, and we were having to nurse him around the clock. Thursday I took him back to the vet to have a tube feeding, as he still was not eating and was still colorless and stiff as a board. That afternoon, he actually had quite an improvement in his mood and I thought things were looking up, but he quickly deteriorated and passed away that night. It was absolutely heart wrenching watching him suffer. Never in a million years did I think I would develop a heart for a lizard, but this guy made quite an impression on me during his last week of life.

So... we are going to put hardwood floors throughout the entire main floor and staircase of our new house, fence in the backyard, and get Hayden a pug after we get settled in. I'm actually kind of hoping maybe he will be under the Christmas tree this year! :)