In all the chaos and stress and darkness and craziness that can be life, sometimes it can be a bit difficult to find the calm.
My peace is contained in the spare room in our house. Funny isn't it?
Before I explain, I will give a bit of a back story to lead up to this.... ahem.
When I was 21 years old I found out I was pregnant, and it was the most shocking news myself and my partner Michael have ever received, I'm sure. (except for maybe being told that Mike was being sent to Afghanistan for 7 months) But I digress.
2 months before our Son was born I moved in with Michael in a basement suite in Chilliwack, BC. I was happy to finally live with Mike but at the same time the circumstances that finally got us living together wasn't the best.
2 months AFTER our Son was born we moved to Edmonton, Alberta. It was probably the worst time of my life as we moved over 1000 kms away from nearly all of our friends and family.
Moving to a different Province with a brand new baby with basically no support was nearly too difficult for Michael and I to handle. We were in love with our new baby boy but our relationship was almost torn apart in the next 2 years from the stress of having to do everything alone. We thankfully got the rare occasion to take a break when my one Aunt that lives here would watch the little man for us.
I can honestly say that we were not expecting parenthood to be so hard. Multiple times we both considered just giving up on us as a couple, but we didn't because of our son.
3 years later and I can honestly say that the first 2 years after having our son was probably the darkest moment in my life. Everything we had went into this little boy and we just had nothing left afterwards to make sure that we were healthy and happy as individuals and as a team. I am seriously surprised that I am not a single Mom right now... that is how difficult it was.
Thanks to some miracle we made it.
2 years after Mason was born things finally seemed to be going back to a semblance of normal, or at least we were making our new normal work. Mason was more independent and we were able to start focussing on ourselves again.
Personally, I was finally able to start doing things that I love to do again. We were both able to. In 2 years I don't think I picked up a pencil more than once but I was finally able to start drawing and painting and creating again. We were both able to finally enjoy life again and not have it be a constant and complete drain on every bit of strength we had. We were able to have hobbies again, and to have alone time.
So 3 years later and Mason has started pre-school, and he is very independent in play and being his crazy little self. I love him more than anything I ever could in this world, except maybe Michael for loving this little human with me and for dealing with my anger at the world for the first couple years of our Son's life.
Now back to the point of this post.
The small room in our house where I could escape the world for a few minutes to recharge; that would be our spare room where most of my reptiles are housed.
This room still to this day holds some kind of magical de-stresser to me. Just coming in here for 5 or 10 minutes to lay down on the couch and be in the same room as my scaly critters will just melt away the problems of the day. If Mason is being a total pain and I'm about to explode I can just come in this room for 5 minutes, close the door, and just relax and it makes a world of difference!
I guess I could call my scaly babies my therapy, to be honest. If they weren't here I don't know that this room would have the same effect.
I can just sit on the couch and enjoy the fact that they are there, or I can take one of them out and just sit and revel in the majestic animal that I am so lucky to keep. I don't know if they know who I am but the fact that I just love these unusual pets make me feel worlds better when I am having a stressful day.
My very first ever pet reptile that I got almost 3 years ago is my lovely, chunky girl, Gaia.
Gaia turned 3 in May and I got her when she was 8 months old, so she has been with me for nearly the whole time that we have lived in Alberta.
Gaia is who started this addiction of mine with geckos, which then transitioned into an addiction for all scaly critters.
She is the sweetest and most calm of all of my reptiles and is the one that I show to anyone who may be a bit wary of these guys at first.
Draco is a 1 year old African Fat-tailed Gecko who I got when he was only a few months old. He fires up this brilliant orange colour if you take him out during the day and he is such a lovely little guy.
Being an African Fat-tailed Gecko he is a bit more shy than a Leopard Gecko, but once you have him out he'll just sit in your hand and chill.
Fat-tails tend to be super calm geckos and are definitely ones I'd recommend to anyone that isn't used to the fast movements of other species. :)
Fat-tails are also super, super velvety soft!
Bracken is an asshole, but I still love him.
He has been a complete and utter spazz since I got him in December when he was 3 months old. He is now 1 year old and is still a total spazz that hates anything to do with you and your hands in his face.
He is hilarious to watch when you feed him as he goes crazy for any kind of bug, and he's a great guy that eats his veggies like a big boy. ;)
Bracken is bright yellow on his good days but if he's feeling grumpy or cold he can go quite dark.
Enya is awesome. She is a gorgeous Crested Gecko who is 2 years old and I've had her for about a year now. She can be a bit intimidating in her tank because she thinks anything that moves is a worm for her to eat, so watch your fingers!
Once she is out of her enclosure though she is generally super calm and chill and likes to climb all over you.
And yes, Enya is a gecko with sticky feet, unlike Gaia and Draco! She can climb walls and ceilings with ease. ;)
Ice is a small baby Crested Gecko, like Enya, who is maybe 7 months old now. He has grown a ton since I got him when he was maybe only 2 grams in size! He was tiny!
This little one is going to be a gorgeous adult and is getting a ton of patterning on his sides.
Being adorable and tiny he is also really jumpy and super fast so I don't hold him much yet.
Cookies and Cream, or Cookie for short, is my adorable 5 month old Paradox Snow Kenyan Sand Boa that I got in August. When you first go to get her out of her tub she is a complete spazoid and will flail and whip all over the place, just like any baby snake. She thinks you want to eat her at first.
After a couple of minutes when she realizes you aren't going to make a meal out of her she calms right down and just slithers super slowly and calmly through your fingers, all the while flicking away her tongue like crazy and checking you out.
She is the most adorable, derpy little snake I've ever seen and I just love these guy's little shovel faces!
I can't wait to see what Cookie looks like when she is full-grown. She is so pretty!
Galadriel is one of my brand new additions that I've only had for a week now! She is a 2 year old Butter Stipe Corn Snake and she is gorgeous and friendly. :)
Surprisingly and shockingly at the recent ERAS Fall Show another vendor came up to me and offered to trade her for one of my paintings!
Heck yes I said! She is gorgeous!
I have wanted a Butter Corn for a long while now so getting a Stripe for basically free, or just for my time that it took to paint that painting, is awesome!
I can't wait to get to know her and I think she'll be an awesome snake to take to events once she is a bit bigger. :)
Last but not least is Vlad! Vlad is also brand new to my animal family and he is a 5 year old Mexican Rosy Boa.
Vlad is a super calm, squishy, super soft snake that I think is going to be my chilling buddy. I can see us sitting and watching many a movie together.
This boy I adopted from the Edmonton Reptile Rescue and Rehab and I was really lucky to get him! He had been at the pet store, Paradise Pets, in St. Albert for apparently a month when I first saw him.
Since he had already been there a while and there was apparently a few people interested in him already I jumped on the chance to adopt him! A couple of days after contacting the rescue about him I brought him home, and I love this boy already.
So those are my scaly babies, and I love them all. :) These are the critters that I can come in this room and hold or admire or just be in their presence and my stress just melts away. They say that animals are the best treatment for depression or anxiety and I can 100% attest to that.
Who would have thought that these scaly, unusual, not "normal" pets would be my oasis in my own home though? I sure didn't.
This is why I have them, and this is why I could never not have reptiles now. They don't judge, they don't beg for attention or need walked or even fed every day. They enjoy your company when you offer it but otherwise they are good on their own. I think that's why I love them so much is that they aren't needy pets, but they still have their own personalities and likes and dislikes.
I love these guys as much as any dog or cat. Some of my reptiles are just as soft as a furry baby anyways. ;)
~Kayla