The lizard man

A bit over a week ago I delivered a rental car back to it's depot and walked back home to Pam's place. I was wandering along minding my own business - actually, I was not minding my own business as I was peering into all the house and shop fronts along the way.

I was peering intently into one such shop window and spotted few glass tanks full of baby lizards. After a few minutes of trying to work out just what this very run down shop really was, I decided it must be a pet shop so I opened the door and walked in.

It wasn't a pet shop and in fact really wasn't a shop at all. It turns out it is a man's woodworking workshop and a lizard breeding operation in one. He has hundreds of lizards of various size and colour.

He breeds bearded dragons and chameleons. I was lucky enough to meet a 6 month old dragon up close and personal. She was very curious about the lime green shirt I was wearing and had to try to lick it a few times.

I asked him if I could visit again with my camera and he seemed happy with that so I returned today. He got a pot of crickets and tempted Tom the chameleon out of his cage. I could not believe the speed of his tongue - I have a photo of Tom with a very soft blur of tongue, but no sign of the cricket...

When Tom had had his fill, the last of the crickets were poured into the small tank in the window. About 8-10 tiny month old bearded dragons were in there and they all ran around catching crickets eating their heads and leaving the rest (for later?). These little ones were about 3-4 inches long and very cute.

It was a very pleasant surprise to come across such an incredibly interesting character so unexpectantly.