more about Boo

I received a very sweet email from someone (whom I won't name) yesterday. It read, "...nice to see you're in better spirits and not throwing your phone at the walls this week. But enough about you already, I want to hear more about Boo." Awww...I'm so touched. Somebody wants to hear about my little dragon (and less about my sorry ass). I love it. Boo does, too, and is very flattered. She didn't say as much but I could tell so by the look in her eyes as she stared at up at me from her branch this morning.



So, how is she doing? Fine. She appears healthy, anyway. Although, she's been refusing to eat her greens. This concerns me since beardies are suppose to eat collard greens, mustard greens and chard for optimum health. But no matter how much I try to get her to eat it, she just shakes her snout at me and refuses (really, she shakes her head when I try to force a collard green leaf in her mouth). I've even dumped worms on the greens (which is what all the beardie-care websites suggest doing) but she's too damn smart. She'll wait until those little creepy b*stards wiggle off the leaves and onto her sand before eating them, thus leaving the greens untouched. I've tried starving her (i.e. only putting greens in her terrarium but no crickets or worms), but she'll just go on a hunger-strike and not eat for days when I do. Sigh.



Like I said, she looks healthy, and when I put her down the other day, she ran all over the place (first time in a long while). I was relieved since she needs exercise. She's awfully pudgy, not that I have any right to judge. I was told that she'd likely never be any heavier than 8 ounces, but I think she weighs at least a pound, if not two. Her soft, robust belly is quite impressive and often drags the ground as she walks. I'll get down on all fours and poke her belly just to tease her. She's not so fond of that, it turns out. I wouldn't be either, so I may cut it out; but her belly fat is so cute, it's hard not to poke it!



As for her learning to talk, it still hasn't happened. I keep repeating things to her in hopes of someday hearing her speak. I realize that is entirely crazy and I shouldn't be admitting it, but I'm serious. You should see her try to talk. She opens her mouth and exhales, only no noise comes out, but her tongue sometimes flicks out over her bottom lip. It's kind of sad to witness, but I pretend it's the greatest thing ever and applaud her efforts (positive reinforcement, of course). I'm an eternal optimist who believes that someday I may actually hear her say, "Hey FatHead. Get up off your pudgy ass and feed me a cricket." Now, wouldn't that be amazing?